Clearly there has got to be some responsibility on the part of BP to make that, correct that situation, to mitigate that.

But it is certainly something that we would want to incorporate into law at some point, to make sure that that flexibility is available.

Relegating them to the back bench is an egregious mistake that could have helped avert this devastation.

Absolutely, the taxpayers should not be on the hook for assuming the financial responsibilities of this clean-up and to mitigate this serious crisis.

this process has relegated these two agencies, and in my opinion, to the back bench--an egregious mistake that could have ultimately averted this catastrophe.

I cannot put into words my horror at the extent of this tragedy that could change the fundamental makeup of Gulf Coast communities for generations.

Dr. Lubchenco had stated that that MMS had underestimated the environmental impacts, had cherry-picked the data to understate the risks as well, and blatantly ignored 12 million gallons of oil that was spilled during Hurricanes Katrina and…

This catastrophe that claimed eleven lives and could devastate an entire ecosystem for decades has been characterized by an abundance of failure and an ineffectiveness of truly staggering proportions.

it's astonishing that these two key agencies, the most knowledgeable, and with the most expertise in a variety of areas, including marine biology, and environmental sensitivities--have not had a mandatory statutory role in the permitting…

Well, for example, the use of a containment dome was listed as part of their strategy in the exploration plan for response to a failure of a blowout preventer, would you have approved a response plan for a vessel that did not acknowledge…

what I find confounding about this entire crisis is the fact that these are, sort of, fundamentals that should have already been established.

the determination of the size of the spill can make a material difference, in terms of mitigation, could it not?

that ought to be put into law, which I would tend to agree with.

So, I think it is important to submit to the Committee exactly what responses, if any, you received from the Minerals Management Service.

But, that is also possible in developing a plan and having a response that's viable, in a worst-case scenario, both in the amount, in terms of the exigencies; and, of course, it must have indicated in the plan how far they're going to go.

Because I think we need to understand the relationship that exists between the agencies. I know it's not in statute, which I think we have to correct, frankly.

We will ask what the government and industry could have done differently to avoid this catastrophe.

Let us also remember what a personal tragedy this incident is for the families of the 11 workers who lost their lives.