Pete Sessions: “I wish to thank Senator LeMieux for raising this matter. I was at the Alabama gulf coast on Friday. We were told there…”

“I wish to thank Senator LeMieux for raising this matter. I was at the Alabama gulf coast on Friday. We were told there was a batch of oil 30 feet wide, 2 miles long that they could see coming onto the shores of the beaches that had not yet been hit in any significant way. In my mind, a good skimmer, even at 1 or 2 miles per hour, could get every bit of that, virtually. I first thought skimmers wouldn't be that effective. I assumed the oil would be very thin and it would come in and be hard to skim, but apparently it is coming in patches and bunches, which makes it more skimmable than I had originally thought. The admiral, whom we spoke to less than an hour ago, indicated that he was requesting of the Navy, as I heard what he said, a certain number of skimmers, and they had 400, and we haven't gotten them yet. Perhaps some plan somewhere calls for them to have skimmers in this bay or this harbor in case something happens, but when we have a national catastrophe as we have going on, every one that could possibly be spared should have already been moved to the gulf coast. I really feel as though this is a frustrating event. It is more serious than I had realized. Also, I think there are several thousand worldwide that have not been asked for that could be asked for. So I think we can do better.”