Joseph Cao: “For the past 3 months I have lived with my people down there in the gulf coast. I have cried with them, I have sat with…”

“For the past 3 months I have lived with my people down there in the gulf coast. I have cried with them, I have sat with them as they filed their claims. I went out in boats with them as they were cleaning up the oil, so I fully understand what my people need. I appreciate the congressional leadership trying to address a bill that will help my people, but H.R. 3534 does not do it. This bill doesn't create jobs, it destroys them. This bill doesn't clean up our shorelines, it creates task forces and layers of bureaucracy that will talk about them. This bill does not preserve our livelihood, it will devastate our way of life. This bill maintains a moratorium that is killing thousands of jobs in Louisiana. Where is the short-term and long-term funding to protect our coastline and to restore the oyster beds in fishing areas? Where are the comprehensive short-term and long-term job transition plans for displaced workers? Where is the long-term plan to address the mental and public health crisis, including the compound effect of multiple crises? Where are the jobs? My colleagues and I tried to amend this bill to address these issues and make sure that these three critical areas, environmental, economic and health, were addressed in this bill. This bill does not protect the people of the gulf coast. It is fundamentally disingenuous to tout any bill not addressing these three areas as a comprehensive oil spill response bill.”