Marco Rubio

I am not sure it is the GCCF's place to be investigating claims of fraud.

Even though they are not anyone's employee, per se, they are basically----

I want to clarify that in my mind.

No, no, it is not. It is a good suggestion.

It cannot continue in this process where you have a bunch of people out there who feel like their claims have been denied and would like to appeal that decision.

I think what we are learning, and increasingly being confirmed to us, is that the problem here is we have a flawed process, a process that has no uniformity.

The purpose of the fine bill is not to advance any ideological view, but rather to deal with the fact that a bunch of people have been hurt really bad by the negligence of an individual company.

I think the argument is, while we are glad the oil is not spewing and we are glad that you do not see it on the surface... we are concerned that there is a bunch of oil that is still unaccounted for.

In an ideal world, this bill would be written the way the Gulf state Senators want it and spent that way.

Well, just as an update on that, let me state that I am pleased by the unity and progress that has been made by numerous members that have been working on this.

So I think it is critically important that the Gulf states are united in presenting a united front on why it is important this money be assigned, and the argument is this is not general revenue.

The first is kind of a philosophical/ideological argument by some that this money should not be assigned but rather should be absorbed into the General Treasury of the United States.

Well, again, and I do not want to put something--I am not committing to something, because I have not thought about it, we have not thought about all the implications, I have not talked to anybody about this yet, but one of the things we…

We are going to talk to some of the other Senators involved on these issues and figure out how we can try to influence Mr. Feinberg's boss.

I admire you for being here. I think it is a great step.

I think that--let us move beyond that.

If there was a ground of understanding of what their expectations were, this would help.

But, frankly, I do not think there is any salvation for Mr. Feinberg and the GCCF.

Let us close the loop on the claims process because it is still a very sore subject for obvious reasons.

If you have been foreclosed on or you cannot feed your family, the promise of getting a payout down the road does not matter.

We do want to encourage you and your colleagues up there to take a strong look to enforce accountability.

We have got $30 million that we are going to help diversify our economy with.

I think Florida has done a good job developing a consortium of all of our state universities.

It is critical for the local communities, the local lawmakers and commissioners to have some say in that.

I think continued research is critical.