BP is responsible, and BP is responsible for all the damages that flow from the BP oil spill.

I appreciate the comment on the role that the engineers played and will continue to play as we try to move forward with the new safety regime for OCS.

The fact also is that that plan has not been effective in protecting the sensitive ecology of the Gulf of Mexico.

It is an existential issue for BP.

I want to work closely with you to make sure that the organization that we put into place will ensure the goals which were articulated by you, Senator Bingaman, and that is that we have safety and environment as a critical concern of how…

Thank you, Chairman Bingaman, Ranking Member Murkowski, and Members of the Committee for the opportunity to be here today.

In the North Atlantic, we took that off the table from any drilling exploration.

We ended up postponing leases that had been planned in the Chukchi and the Beaufort Sea, as Senator Murkowski well knows.

Our reorganization is essentially blowing up MMS and putting it into different parts of the department and separating functions to avoid both perceived and real conflicts of interest.

The fact is that BP did have an oil spill response plan.

There is much more that can be done with respect to what we are doing concerning the safety requirements imposed on companies.

In fact, in Senator Menendez's State of New Jersey, there is an oil spill laboratory which looks at oil spills and how to contain oil spills.

I signed up for this job, I signed up for it in large part because it is, in my view, the Department of America.

We ought not to allow BP to do it by themselves.

S. 3404, also introduced by Senator Udall, to require the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Bureau of Reclamation, to take actions to clean up the pollution at Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel in Lake County, Colorado.

I want to emphasize for the record that the goal of my legislation--the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel Act of 2010 (S. 3404)--is not to force the Bureau of Reclamation to act when it believes the tunnel is safe.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the effort to legislatively repeal the statute of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and leave it up to the military to implement their own policy recommendation. First of all, Don't Ask, Don't Tell is the only…

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. The trouble is, this is not working so great for the Department of Defense, and to take it to all the other departments of government is not a good idea. We were promised that we…