Concern has obviously been raised about the dispersants.

All of those areas have been dramatically impacted by this spill, and those are areas Senator Merkley and Senator Cardin and others joined me in visiting.

This isn't a non-emergency situation. This is a clear emergency situation, and clear environmental damage was happening every hour of every day.

Mr. President, I submit the following notice in writing: In accordance with rule V of the Standing Rules of the Senate, I hereby give notice in writing that it is my intention to move to suspend rule XXII, Paragraph 2, for the purpose of…

I invited the President to send any responsible witness to lay out the rationale for the moratorium.

I am afraid perhaps OPA 90 had this assessment-restoration model set up, but no prevention model.

what the Federal agencies were best at was raising countless objections, slowing things down to an impractical pace.

I again want to quickly emphasize my extreme concern with the drilling moratorium in the Gulf.

I urge everyone in the Senate to come together around my legislation which would remove any cap for this event.

Again, if you could have NOAA respond more specifically to me, I would appreciate it.

Can your agency get that in some detail to my office?

The natural resource damages assessments are imperative for cleaning up this mess properly and to ensuring the future environmental health of the Gulf.

I talked to Bill Reilly, a co-chair, yesterday and he did not defend the moratorium in any way.

Natural resource damages assessments are extremely important, but like Councilman Young I have been more focused on natural resource damages prevention.

One misperception up here I am very concerned about is that for this moratorium these rigs, these businesses are just going to sort of sit back and wait and then 6 months and a day will turn the light switch back on and go back into…

It is time that we get back to doing what we do best in Louisiana, and that is, fueling our nation.

We are not sure if you can fish in the same waters that you can drill oil and gas.

We must get the Gulf of Mexico back producing for national security, for our environmental, and for small businesses.