I am aware and have been for months, and it is part of why we wanted you all to come.

I would encourage you to live up to your public statements that you are going to make the region whole.

We should pay subsistence claims, fund food banks, and streamline the Food Stamp application to the two-page Disaster Food Stamp Form to alleviate food insecurity.

Economically, the Gulf Coast continues to be hit hard by all of this, and it is not the spill directly, it is the de facto moratorium which continues.

Each State should have the ability to use these funds how they see fit to restore the economic and ecological damage caused by the spill.

In the 5 months that BP managed this claims process... they only distributed $359 million Gulf-wide.

It has been 9 months since the oil spill. Fifty-seven percent of claims in my State of Alabama remain unpaid.

Thank you, Senator Landrieu, for your leadership in bringing this human side of this tragedy to the forefront once again.

Congress needs to swiftly address the allocation of the Clean Water Act fines from the BP oil spill.

Wrap up, if you can.

The damages caused by the oil spill could last years.

We have had eight straight months of increasing unemployment. That is a direct result of the drilling moratorium.

We have paid out in the last 5 weeks about 85,000 quick payments totaling almost $700 million.

Thank you, Senator Landrieu, for calling this hearing and special thanks for your staff for inviting me today.

That is an excellent question, and first of all, thank you for your testimony, Mr. Nguyen. We really appreciate it.

This is a real problem.

But just to be clear, anyone at any amount can appeal to the Coast Guard.

But do these employees in some of these law firms that have been, although they are not there for legal purposes but for advocacy purposes, do they have access to the database?