Kathy Castor: “I am very pleased to see so much bipartisan support for legislation to devote 80 percent of the fines and penalties…”

“I am very pleased to see so much bipartisan support for legislation to devote 80 percent of the fines and penalties under the Clean Water Act from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster to the Gulf of Mexico. And I reluctantly have to oppose this amendment because the amendment is entitled RESTORE, and that is one of the pieces of legislation that, on the one hand, does devote 80 percent but, on the other, is completely flawed; and so for that reason, I'm going to have to urge everyone to vote ``no.'' But let's not lose momentum here. Let's redouble our efforts in this Congress as soon as possible to pass legislation that does devote 80 percent of the fines and penalties to the Gulf of Mexico. The problems with the RESTORE Act are many. It does not focus on gulf-wide research and recovery. It does not devote the kind of resources to long-term monitoring in the Gulf of Mexico that many other areas in America enjoy. It potentially will duplicate the natural resource damage-assessment billions flowing to the impacted areas. For those reasons, I urge a ``no'' vote. I yield back the balance of my time.”