Thanks to our witnesses today.

No economic analysis of consequence was done prior to that dramatic decision?

That is the de facto moratorium.

if the formal and de facto moratoria continue for six months or more, what revenue impact will your jurisdiction and your local school systems see, and what service cuts will that lead to?

If this moratorium continues even a few more months, we will lose more jobs because of it than we will lose from the oil itself.

Now, in this context, it just happened yesterday, but do you have any comments or reaction to this move by the administration, at least in deepwater, possibly broader, to get rid of this NEPA categorical exclusion?

What I am scared to death about is that for energy companies and related industries, all of a sudden, the political risk in the United States of America is higher, is worse, is more threatening than it is in West Africa or a lot of other…

I want to go back to the broader issue of not just the formal moratorium in deepwater, but the de facto moratorium in shallow water and the threat of unreasonable regulation.

We are still waiting to hear the justification. The people of Louisiana are still waiting to hear the justification.

I am very disappointed that our witnesses don't include any representative of the Obama Administration.

Right. And just to be clear for the record, as of three weeks ago, the number of those new drilling permits in shallow since the Deepwater Horizon explosion was zero.

The economic threat continues worse than ever because of this moratorium.

What percentage of those ports' activity is directly related to offshore oil and gas?

the initial legislative intent behind the defense QDR has degraded over time.

the 2010 QDR lacked a clear future planning construct going forward 20 years.

the administration exempted the defense budget from spending freezes being applied to other parts of the government.

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

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

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

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

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

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

What our frustration is is the Federal Government is essentially saying we don't know what the adverse effects of the rock jetties may be.

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

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