On the recordMay 10, 2011
Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the remaining time. I agree with the gentleman from Louisiana; I am not an expert on drilling. We are congressional experts. And that is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms, like ``jumbo shrimp'' or ``Salt Lake City night life.'' There is no such thing. We rely upon real experts. Here are the real experts: The Blue Ribbon Commission put together to study what went wrong and what needs to be done, and that is what my amendment will do. My amendment is very close to the legislation that passed 48-0 out of the Commerce Committee last year and was later adopted by the House. So all we are doing is just reflecting what all of these experts recommended and were finally incorporated. So we can ignore the experts, but then we roll the dice. And, once again, a part of our coastline could be held hostage to an oil company that was trying to save money but at risk of endangering the lives and the livelihood of millions of people off of the coastline off of our country. I urge an ``aye'' vote for the Markey amendment.
