I 
111TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5676 
To provide equitable means for ensuring that damages for injuries are 
efficiently secured, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 1, 2010 
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas introduced the following bill; which was referred 
to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and in addition 
to the Committees on Ways and Means, Natural Resources, the Judici-
ary, Energy and Commerce, and Science and Technology, for a period to 
be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider-
ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 
concerned 
A BILL 
To provide equitable means for ensuring that damages for 
injuries are efficiently secured, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Omnibus Right to Eq-
uitable Means of Ensuring Damages for Injuries are Effi-
ciently Secured Act of 2010’’, also known as the ‘‘REM-
EDIES Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds that— 
(1) the Deepwater Horizon explosion and its 
collapse in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in the largest 
environmental disaster in United States History; 
(2) the incident led to 11 deaths, 17 serious in-
juries, permanent damage and injury to wildlife and 
the environment, and greatly impaired the tourism, 
fishing, shrimping, oystering, and oil industries in 
Gulf Coast communities; 
(3) in the 72 days since the explosion, over 
80,000,000 gallons of crude oil has leaked into the 
Gulf; 
(4) the full extent of the material, economic, 
and environmental damage caused by the Gulf Coast 
oil spill incident is expected to total in the tens of 
billions of dollars; 
(5) under current law, many of the victims may 
not be able to receive full and complete compensa-
tion for the loss of their loved ones, their livelihoods, 
or the damage to our natural resources; 
(6) lax permitting standards on the part of 
Federal agencies enabled such disaster; and 
(7) the independent compensation apparatus set 
up by BP plc has been inadequate. 
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SEC. 3. LIABILITY UNDER OIL POLLUTION ACT OF 1990. 
(a) INCREASE IN LIABILITY LIMITATIONS UNDER 
OIL POLLUTION ACT OF 1990.—Section 1004(a) of the 
Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (33 U.S.C. 2704(a)) is amend-
ed— 
(1) in paragraph (1)(A) by striking ‘‘$3,000’’ 
and inserting ‘‘$6,000’’; 
(2) in paragraph (1)(B) by striking ‘‘$1,900’’ 
and inserting ‘‘$3,800’’; 
(3) in paragraph (1)(C)(i)(I) by striking 
‘‘$22,000,000’’ and inserting ‘‘$44,000,000’’; 
(4) in paragraph (1)(C)(i)(II) by striking 
‘‘$16,000,000’’ and inserting ‘‘$32,000,000’’; 
(5) in paragraph (1)(C)(ii)(I) by striking 
‘‘$6,000,000’’ and inserting ‘‘$12,000,000’’; 
(6) in paragraph (1)(C)(ii)(II) by striking 
‘‘$4,000,000’’ and inserting ‘‘$8,000,000’’; 
(7) in paragraph (2) by striking ‘‘$800,000’’ 
and inserting ‘‘$1,600,000’’; 
(8) in paragraph (3) by striking ‘‘$75,000,000’’ 
and inserting ‘‘$300,000,000’’; and 
(9) in paragraph (4) by striking ‘‘$75,000,000’’ 
and inserting ‘‘$150,000,000’’. 
(b) TIERED LIABILITY.—Section 1004 of the Oil Pol-
lution Act of 1990 (33 U.S.C. 2704) is amended by adding 
at the end the following: 
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‘‘(e) EXCESS LIABILITY.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The President shall pay to 
any person to whom a responsible party is liable 
under this Act the amount of any such liability that 
is not recoverable from the responsible party because 
of the application of the limitations under subsection 
(a). 
‘‘(2) PAYMENT
FROM
TRUST
FUND.—The 
President shall pay the amount referred to in para-
graph (1)— 
‘‘(A) first from the Trust Fund, except 
that the amount paid under this subparagraph 
shall not exceed $10,300,000,000 for any inci-
dent; and 
‘‘(B) after payment under subparagraph 
(A), from amounts received by the United 
States as a levy under paragraph (3). 
‘‘(3) IMPOSITION OF LEVY.—The President may 
establish, assess, and collect from persons in the oil 
industry a levy to recover the amount of liability to 
be paid under paragraph (2)(B) for an incident.’’. 
(c) This section will not be retroactive. 
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SEC. 4. AMENDMENTS RELATING TO OIL SPILL LIABILITY 
TRUST FUND. 
(a) INCREASE IN SIZE OF THE OIL SPILL LIABILITY 
TRUST FUND.—Paragraph (1) of section 4611(f) of the 
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking 
‘‘$2,000,000,000’’ and inserting ‘‘$10,000,000,000’’. 
(b) INCREASE IN PER-INCIDENT CLEANUP CAP.— 
Subparagraph (A) of section 9509(c)(2) of such Code is 
amended— 
(1) by striking ‘‘$1,000,000,000’’ both places it 
appears in the heading and text and inserting 
‘‘$10,000,000,000’’, and 
(2) in clause (ii) by striking ‘‘$500,000,000’’ 
and inserting ‘‘$5,000,000,000’’. 
(c) INCREASE IN TAX.—Subparagraph (B) of section 
4611(c)(2) of such Code is amended— 
(1) in clause (i) by striking ‘‘8 cents’’ and in-
serting ‘‘30 cents’’, and 
(2) in clause (ii) by striking ‘‘9 cents’’ and in-
serting ‘‘40 cents’’. 
(d) REPEAL OF SUNSET OF OIL SPILL LIABILITY 
TRUST FUND FINANCING RATE.—Section 4611(f) of such 
Code is amended— 
(1) by striking paragraph (2), and 
(2) by striking ‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—Except’’ 
and inserting ‘‘Except’’. 
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(e) UPDATE EXPENDITURES FROM TRUST FUND.— 
Subsection (f) of section 9509 of such Code is amended 
by striking ‘‘the date of the enactment of this subsection’’ 
and inserting ‘‘the date of the enactment of the Omnibus 
Right to Equitable Means of Ensuring Damages for Inju-
ries are Efficiently Secured Act of 2010’’. 
(f) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 
this section shall take effect on the date of the enactment 
of this Act, and these amendments will not be retroactive. 
SEC. 5. AMENDMENT TO JONES ACT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 30104 of title 46, United 
States Code, is amended— 
(1) in the section heading, by striking ‘‘sea-
men’’ inserting ‘‘covered maritime employ-
ees’’; 
(2) by striking ‘‘seaman’’ each place it appears 
and inserting ‘‘covered maritime employee’’; 
(3) by striking ‘‘personal representative of’’ and 
inserting ‘‘spouse, parent, child, sibling, or depend-
ent relative of’’; 
(4) by inserting ‘‘or any person whose act or 
omission was a cause of the injury or death’’ after 
‘‘the employer’’; 
(5) by inserting ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL’’ before the 
first sentence; and 
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(6) by adding at the end of the section the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(b) COVERED MARITIME EMPLOYEE DEFINED.—In 
this section the term ‘covered maritime employee’ 
means— 
‘‘(1) a seaman; or 
‘‘(2) an individual employed on an offshore fa-
cility (as that term is defined in section 1001 of the 
Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (33 U.S.C. 2701)) or a 
mobile offshore drilling unit.’’. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The chapter anal-
ysis at the beginning of chapter 301 of title 46, United 
States Code, is amended by striking the item relating to 
such section and inserting the following: 
‘‘30104. Personal injury or death of covered maritime employee.’’. 
SEC. 6. AMENDMENTS TO DEATH ON THE HIGH SEAS ACT. 
The Death on the High Seas Act (chapter 303 of title 
46, United States Code), is amended— 
(1) by striking ‘‘personal representative’’ each 
place it appears and inserting ‘‘spouse, parent, child, 
sibling, or dependent relative’’; 
(2) in section 30303— 
(A) by inserting ‘‘and nonpecuniary loss’’ 
after ‘‘pecuniary loss’’; 
(B) by striking ‘‘by’’ and all that follows 
through the end, and inserting ‘‘, plus a fair 
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