Political Quotes

“I have worked with the gentleman and our committee staff to craft this language. It's important to note that these are not taxpayer dollars paying for restoration, but rather proceeds from a penalty provided in this provision that is very clearly spelled out, and which revenue goes into the Gulf of Mexico restoration account, and then is further subject to appropriations. So that keeps the Congress in control of the outlay of funds. Rather than just imposing a civil penalty and allowing those funds to go into an agency, there will be very clear control. So the proceeds are used from the penalty for a legitimate public purpose to pay for the projects, programs, and activities out of the restoration fund to clean up the destruction from oil spilled. To paraphrase previous speakers on the other side of the aisle, the explosion and blowout of the BP drilling operation in the Gulf is a 'textbook case' on killing jobs and wildlife and destruction of the marine environment; putting 300,000 jobs at risk in travel, tourism, fishing, commercial and recreational fishing, catching, harvesting, processing fish and shellfish, jobs destroyed by the uncontrolled oil spill. The safety provisions of our bill will protect those jobs in the future. The liability provisions will assure that there will be compensation for those who lose jobs and livelihood because of an oil spill.”