the era of self-regulation is over for the offshore oil industry.

I have confidence that you are pushing BP as hard as you can to stop the spill and protect ecosystems.

President Obama suggested one last week; he cited a cozy relationship between the Minerals Management Service, or MMS, and the industry it was regulating.

Regulatory failure is one of the 3 key interlocking failures that I believe are at the heart of this problem.

A special thanks and appreciation is extended to New Mexico Senator Udall for his continued support regarding these issues.

The taxpayers and Native communities deserve assurance that these monies will be spent accountably and that they would be spent in a cost-effective way.

if a school is going to fall down and kill 20 kids or 100 kids or something like that tomorrow, that is the one I would want you to be on top of

I think one of the keys is, as you said, mobilizing these other resources around the Federal Government.

And clearly you want to give the top academic experience to your students, but because of these safety issues you are having to pull money away from that academic side. And that is obviously unacceptable.

we should be able to fix a lot of the things that are going on.

When the United States Government has a school, it is their school. We have a trust responsibility to run this school for Indian children.

Before I close the hearing, I want to just make two comments. As Chairman Dorgan said, the reporting on these issues out in New Mexico and in other places I think has been very helpful in terms of moving us forward, exposing the problems…

It seems to me the key, I mean both of these witnesses here and the previous witnesses were focusing on education, but the real key is in healthy families in these native communities.

I joined Senators Dorgan and Franken in asking the Senate Budget Committee to increase funding for BIA Education Construction.

I agree with my colleague, Senator Udall, that we have a national emergency on our hands. We must act before it is too late.

I want to thank you for holding this hearing. It is a very important hearing both for the Country and native students.

I have been calling for a Marshall Plan to eliminate the backlog in construction and maintenance of BIA facilities.

The sobering reality is that, despite the losses and damage that have already been suffered, we do not yet know what the full impact of this disaster will be.