with all due respect to my colleague, who I have the utmost admiration for, Senator Menendez and others that are calling for unlimited liability, it will put out of reach the possibility for insurance.

These are Federal resources. There's no doubt. This oil was 50 miles off the shore of Louisiana.

The people of Louisiana that support this industry, support this initiative off of our coast, we most certainly want it to be safe and more secure.

What this could do to Florida, if all of this oil washes along our shores; what it's going to do to our tourism industry, what it's going to do to our fishing business, what it's going to do to recreational boating, what it's going to do…

I would think that we shouldn't outsource our responsibility for cleaning this up.

I want to do everything we can to get folks out there--local community folks--cities, counties, businesses, volunteers, state government--to try to do everything we can to stop this oil from coming ashore.

The President shall establish a loan program under the fund to provide interim assistance to fishermen and aquiculture producer claimants during the claims procedure.

The State of Louisiana and local parishes have made a proposal to do emergency dredging and use the dredged material to build up the barrier islands.

Timing is the big issue, and this request has been out there for a week or more.

This is obviously a historic event with a big negative impact on fisheries. If this doesn't qualify, I don't know what does.

I hope that we will get answers to the questions that you asked in your opening statement, and I thought that they were excellent and right on point.

It is important that we get this right because it has a major impact on how these wells are drilled around the world.

We are prepared, they say, to pay above $75 million on these claims, and we will not seek reimbursement from the U.S. Government or the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.

I am assuming that BP is going to step up, as they have said, and cover all of these costs.

I support the President's 30-day look. I most certainly support tighter controls over deep-water wells.

I think, for us to try to be as clear as we can be about how people might actually receive assistance.

I hold the Federal Government responsible for continuing to issue permits for deep-water drilling without demanding that the companies who receive those permits be prepared to deal with the effects of an accident.

I thank my colleague, Senator Snowe, who chaired the Small Business Committee for many years, for her dogged determination to make sure the language in the underlying bill, which is most certainly necessary to curb gross abuses in the…