It taught us that major oil spill devastation lasts for decades after the oil is gone.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is an environmental tragedy of monumental proportions.

Anything that jeopardizes our oceans and coastal environment jeopardizes the economies of those regions.

If this top kill were to be effective today, it will be at least another 60 days to remove the oil that is there.

We need to move forward on answers that will help these communities.

So you have segments of people who will be losing their jobs and shutting their factories.

Tracie has been a key part of the Tulalip's successful transition in numerous critical positions.

What we need in this position... is someone who understands and can balance the many unique and complicated issues that arise between tribal sovereignty and Federal law.

Are you willing to use enforcement authorities you have at your disposal in order to ensure the tribes remain, stay on top of this process?

The need for permanent leadership at the National Indian Gaming Commission is very great.

The nomination of Tracie Stevens to be Chair of the National Indian Gaming Commission is an important nomination.

Do you think that there should be some sort 'three strikes, you're out' kind of clause, as it relates to companies doing business?

If that's the case, that it is this legal gray area, wouldn't it take years to resolve through the court system?

Isn't one reason why we need the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund is that we don't always know who's responsible for the spill, and so, you want somebody cleaning up the spill even before you determine liability?

If we look at the Exxon Valdez, it took 20, so that's an idea.

I know many of my colleagues worked hard on regulatory reform legislation, but I also think it is important that we keep our eye on a very critical part of solving this problem. It has been clear to me for a long time that the deregulation…

We must work tirelessly to contain the spill and its damage, because the future of these coastal regions depends on it.

I'm definitely going to be drafting legislation in this regard, because I think it's clear that things as critical as blowout preventers that don't have third-party validators basically saying that they do work, is kind of missing the…

We must work tirelessly to contain the oil spill and the damage, because the future of the coastal region depends on it.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill taught us a great deal, and while this spill is very different, the warnings of Exxon Valdez can be very instructive.

I actually think that more third-party validation of the equipment is a critical issue.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill taught us a great deal.

If you have an agency, such as yours, that is in charge of rendering the questions of the impact of oil spills on science, and yet you give that science to an agency that's supposed to do oversight, and they ignore it, I think those are…

We need to put a price on carbon. It should be gradual. It should be predictable. It should be reasonable. But we need to do it now.

We hope that you'll keep this committee informed of the indicators to those species, so that we can have an idea.