Date: 2010-07-01
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. among the many challenges of this Nation is the ongoing oil spillage in the gulf. a region that I come from. I also happen to come from the city of Houston and represent a number our large energy companies. along with wind and solar and natural gas. We truly need a seamless energy policy. but our consuming responsibility is to stop this oil spillage and to stop it now. And I believe it is important that we do it with an understanding of a longrange strategy to address this crisis. Right now. as I speak. Hurricane Alex has made its way along the gulf. And during this hurricane season. we dont know how many other hurricanes will come and disrupt the cleanup actions that are going on. So today Ive introduced H.R. 5676. the Right to Equitable Means of Ensuring Damages for Injuries are Efficiently Secured Act of 2010. or the REMEDIES Act. And I rise today to introduce this to address the many issues created by the recent disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. For over 2 months the blownout wellhead beneath the wreckage of the Deepwater Horizon platform has spewed tens of thousands of barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico and the gulf coast communities on a daily basis. The initial explosion killed 11 people. seriously injured 17 others. and destroyed a multimillion dollar platform. But the extent of the damage done is far. far greater. The disaster and its aftermath have wrecked local industries and polluted or outright destroyed precious natural resources. and people are unable to work and to earn the money to pay for food. mortgages and other basic expenses. And in my visits to the gulf region. these people were unattended to. oystermen. fishermen. shrimpers. restaurants not having any way to access a quick and immediate response. Oh. yes. you see now a claims system in place. You see that there is now an established $20 billion fund that I am grateful to our President for establishing. But look how long it took because there was no structure in place. It is obvious that the existing body of law is antiquated and. therefore. inadequate to cope with the current situation. The liability caps under the current law will allow the responsible parties to pay just a mere fraction of the damages they have inflicted on the people of the gulf. Legislation enacted in the early part of the last century does not properly cover all the workers in the contemporary industry. and BP and other oil industry entities need to be able to address this question. My bill would establish a tiered liability system so that we would provide a structure to provide coverage. yet protect the smaller and independent operators. The REMEDIES Act will also make some needed changes to 1920era laws such as the Jones Act and the Death on the High Seas Act. to ensure that family members can recover. such as mothers and sisters. brothers and wives. which is not the case at this point. The language suggests that it will be a personal representative. In addition. my bill would cause the end of lax permitting of the Minerals Management Service and the Department of the Interior and would require that if you had five safety violations. you would immediately put a moratorium and shutdown of the deepwater drilling. My bill would also increase the oil spill liability trust fund from $1.6 billion to $10 billion. The money would be standing there now. In addition. the Federal Water Pollution Act would be amended. as I said earlier. permitting. requiring that any permit would require you to establish a vetted recovery plan. so that if your BOP did not work. you had a back up plan that had been vetted and assessed as workable. In addition. as I mentioned. if you had any violations. as these companies have been known to have. but. in particular. this company. you would immediately be shut down. When I asked one of the new members of the MMS why BP wasnt shut down with the enormous list of violations that it had. the question was. not to the fault of the person who answered the question. but it was. We just havent looked at that now. My amendment. or my legislation. will call for the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish a separate claims process under their jurisdiction. This legislation will ask the President to establish an emergency spill coordination team led by the commandant of the Coast Guard. along with the EPA. and the Secretary of Energy. My amendment would also establish a research and development fund funded by the industry up to $1 billion to be able to design the most sophisticated technology for recovery. research. and remediation in an oil spill. And my amendment would require immediate posttraumatic stress disorder counseling for all of the people who we are not even addressing the pain or the mental distress that is being caused. I ask my colleagues to review H.R. 5676. the REMEDIES Act. so that we can go forward and establish a pathway to solve this problem and not have it happen again. Mr. Speaker. I rise today to introduce a far reaching. comprehensive piece of legislation to help address some of the many issues created by the recent disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. the "Right to Equitable Means of Ensuring Damages for Injuries are Efficiently Secured" Act of 2010. For over two months. the blown out wellhead beneath the wreckage of the Deepwater Horizon platform has spewed tens of thousands of barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico and Gulf Coast communities on a daily basis. The initial explosion killed eleven people. seriously injured seventeen others. and destroyed a multimillion dollar platform. but the extent of the damage done is far. far greater. The disaster and its aftermath have wrecked local industries and polluted or outright destroyed precious natural resources. and people are unable to work and to earn the money to pay for food. mortgages. and other basic expenses. It is obvious that the existing body of law is antiquated and therefore inadequate to cope with the current situation. The liability caps under current law will allow the responsible parties to pay a mere fraction of the damages they have inflicted on the people of the Gulf. legislation enacted in the early part of the last century does not properly cover all the workers in the contemporary industry. and BP is nickel and diming the people its recklessness has put out of work. Damage from the oil spill in the Gulf region will almost certainly total in the billions of dollars. but current law caps liability for damages at $75 million. While that seems like a huge number. it is less than 20 percent of the cost of the platform itself. My bill would establish a tiered liability system. so that the oil industry pays all the costs for cleanup and damages caused by the spills it creates. while still allowing independent operators to stay in business. This provision would be retroactive.