I think having an extension of the SBA performing outreach across the country would be critical

we ought to decide, certainly for our purposes too, what we need to do to change the law in that regard.

Clearly there has got to be some responsibility on the part of BP to make that, correct that situation, to mitigate that.

See what you did, Chair Landrieu, instantaneously?

But it is certainly something that we would want to incorporate into law at some point, to make sure that that flexibility is available.

So it seems to me that we have to get some clarity on those issues because the person should or the business owner should be made whole.

In any event, we get things done.

We do things quickly here.

Today's credit crunch constitutes the worst since 1942 according to a recent FDIC survey

We are going to make sure that BP repays all that assistance, correct?

Thank you very much, Chair Landrieu, for holding this oversight hearing on SBA's Disaster Assistance Program.

we have to do everything we can to extend assistance to you.

I rise again to speak on the amendment that is pending that I had offered last week, No. 3883, which I have introduced with my good friend and colleague, Senator Pryor. Our amendment would ensure fairness and regulatory transparency for…

So, I think it is important to submit to the Committee exactly what responses, if any, you received from the Minerals Management Service.

This catastrophe that claimed eleven lives and could devastate an entire ecosystem for decades has been characterized by an abundance of failure and an ineffectiveness of truly staggering proportions.

it's astonishing that these two key agencies, the most knowledgeable, and with the most expertise in a variety of areas, including marine biology, and environmental sensitivities--have not had a mandatory statutory role in the permitting…

Dr. Lubchenco had stated that that MMS had underestimated the environmental impacts, had cherry-picked the data to understate the risks as well, and blatantly ignored 12 million gallons of oil that was spilled during Hurricanes Katrina and…

the determination of the size of the spill can make a material difference, in terms of mitigation, could it not?

what I find confounding about this entire crisis is the fact that these are, sort of, fundamentals that should have already been established.

Because I think we need to understand the relationship that exists between the agencies. I know it's not in statute, which I think we have to correct, frankly.

Well, for example, the use of a containment dome was listed as part of their strategy in the exploration plan for response to a failure of a blowout preventer, would you have approved a response plan for a vessel that did not acknowledge…

Relegating them to the back bench is an egregious mistake that could have helped avert this devastation.

this process has relegated these two agencies, and in my opinion, to the back bench--an egregious mistake that could have ultimately averted this catastrophe.

But, that is also possible in developing a plan and having a response that's viable, in a worst-case scenario, both in the amount, in terms of the exigencies; and, of course, it must have indicated in the plan how far they're going to go.

that ought to be put into law, which I would tend to agree with.