If we find that the use of dispersants has had a damaging impact on natural resources, would BP be responsible for those damages as well?

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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…

I hope that she is watching today and seeing that you are doing a good job here, Sheldon, on this front.

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.

I think it is critical that everyone understands that blowout preventer systems as designed today will never be able to overcome poor well design or faulty operational decision making.

There definitely needs to be a concerted effort made to develop and test equipment, new technology, and procedures in a realistically simulated deepwater environment.