Joseph Cao: “For the past several weeks, the eyes of the world have been directed to the oil spill in the gulf coast. People have…”

“For the past several weeks, the eyes of the world have been directed to the oil spill in the gulf coast. People have been watching, hoping, and wondering: How many lives will it claim? How many thousands of barrels of oil will it leak? How many years will it set back our efforts to rebuild our delicate coastal wetlands? How many livelihoods of fishermen and longshoremen will it destroy? The Federal Government's response this time, fortunately, has been swift. As I told Secretaries Napolitano and Salazar as we flew over the affected area this weekend, we are grateful for the care, concern, and compassion they are showing the gulf coast. Yet we in Congress must also perform our role by being vigilant and by focusing on providing immediate assistance with the containment-- with cleanup initiatives that will ensure the accountability of those at fault and with the acceleration of Louisiana's oil and gas revenue-sharing, which, without legislative changes, will not allow Louisiana to receive money to rebuild our coastal wetlands until 2017. Louisiana has taken up the call to address the country's energy needs. It is time this country heeds the call of Louisiana for the money to restore our coast.”