Charles Melancon

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. I yield 30 seconds to the chairman.

Mr. MELANCON. I yield 1 minute to Mr. Oberstar.

Mr. MELANCON. I would like to thank my colleagues and ask for unanimous consent to consider a revised amendment which addresses the issues they are concerned about.

Mr. MELANCON. Parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support the Gulf Coast Restoration Amendment for one simple reason: responsible oil- spill response legislation must include funding to address the rapid deterioration of our crumbling coast. Coastal erosion has chipped away at our barrier islands, beaches and marshes for decades. Louisiana alone loses a football field of coast every 38 minutes and is set to lose another 500 square miles by 2050. But the BP oil spill will accelerate land loss as our marshes die from exposure to oil and chemicals from the cleanup. This disaster has effectively hit the fast forward button on an already terrible problem. BP will foot the bill for the cleanup effort. We will hold them to their responsibility and their word, but they are not legally bound to address the accelerated land loss as a result of the spill. My amendment will make certain they don't simply clean the water and walk away from the long-term damage to our coast and marshes. My amendment would create a new civil penalty on gulf coast spills of more than 1 million barrels. The owner or operator of the rig would be responsible for paying $200 million per 1 million barrels spilled to fund environmental restoration projects to save the gulf coast. Restoration projects would be spread across the Gulf Coast States and would be overseen by the Gulf Coast Coordination Council, a task force of Federal, State and local stakeholders, created by this bill. My amendment is deficit-neutral and comes at no cost to taxpayers or to the Federal Government. Survival of the gulf coast's fragile ecosystem and the fishing and tourism industries that rely on them hinges upon successful restoration of our wetlands. Without them, many gulf communities will vanish, and the rest of the country will lose access to the seafood and recreation they have enjoyed for decades. The gulf coast is America's working coast. We contribute $3 trillion annually to the economy. Seven of our country's top 10 ports are located in the gulf, and 40 percent of our Nation's seafood is harvested from its waters. President Obama has charged the oil spill response team with finding long-term solutions for repairing our coast. Our families back home are depending on Congress to restore their livelihoods, and we have that opportunity today. Earlier this month, just after news broke that BP had finally capped their well, Bob Marshall of The Times-Picayune wrote a lengthy column about the long road ahead for south Louisiana and this cleanup. He wrote: ``We need to remember this is a temporary problem on top of a permanent disaster. Long after BP's oil is gone, we'll still be fighting for survival against a much more serious enemy--our sinking, crumbling delta. Our coast is like a cancer patient who has come down with pneumonia. That's serious, but curable. After the fever breaks, he'll still have cancer. Our officials' focus should remain on stopping the activities that continue to destroy our marshes and getting national support for projects that can protect what we have left.'' He's right. And make no mistake, this is that time. Five years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, our country is again focused on a tragedy in south Louisiana. For the past 102 days, every time you opened your paper or turned on the evening news, you saw the well, our oiled marshes and wildlife, and our people, struggling to get through the day and unable to imagine a better tomorrow. We are staring at a cleanup that will take a decade or more to complete. We will only get there if we address our disappearing coasts. Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support my Gulf Coast Restoration Amendment. This is that time, and we can't wait another day. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. MELANCON. I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from West Virginia, Chairman Rahall.

Mr. MELANCON. I would like to thank my colleague from West Virginia for his help on this amendment. Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment to lift the deepwater moratorium for companies that meet the new safety requirements and guidelines recently set in place by Secretary Salazar. Make no mistake, BP was a bad player. As we have discovered through numerous congressional hearings, this company took dangerous shortcuts to save money. They ignored warning signs and the advice of their own workers who were concerned about the stability of the well, and they continued to drill even when they knew that the safety mechanisms in place to prevent a blowout were not working properly. Eleven good men died because of their greed. The tragedy on Deepwater opened our eyes to the need for tougher safety regulations for offshore drilling, to the need to strengthen the enforcement of both new and existing laws, and to the need to protect workers who report their companies' dangerous and even illegal practices to regulators so that we can stop another accident before it happens. Yet an indiscriminate blanket moratorium punishes the innocent along with the guilty for the actions and the poor judgment of one reckless company. If a rig meets all of the tough new safety requirements issued by the Department of the Interior, if it has been fully inspected and deemed safe, why should it sit idle? The workers of that rig, why should they go jobless until the arbitrary 6-month period is over? People in Louisiana understand that it doesn't make any sense. Louisianans, more than any other people, want to prevent another disaster from happening in our waters, but the irresponsible decisions and the dangerous actions of one company shouldn't shut down an entire sector of our economy, sending thousands of workers to the unemployment line. We need to fix the problems that led to this disaster in the gulf without paralyzing America's domestic energy industry in the process. That is what my amendment does. Instead of a blanket moratorium, my amendment would allow drilling permits to be approved for those rigs that meet the new tougher safety requirements issued by the Department of the Interior in the wake of the explosion. Those 31 stalled drilling rigs directly employ some 1,400 workers. Hundreds of small businesses in Louisiana service those rigs or are, in some way, supported by the offshore oil and gas industry. According to research by Dr. Joseph Mason of Louisiana State University, under the current 6-month moratorium, the gulf coast region will lose more than 8,000 jobs, nearly $500 million in wages and over $2.1 billion in economic activity, as well as nearly $100 million in State and local tax revenue--and that's only if the drilling will start back immediately in 6 months. You don't need to be an economist to see the impact of the moratorium on south Louisiana. You just need to drive through coastal parishes like Lafourche, Terrebonne, or Grand Isle, Louisiana. Talk to people like Shelly Landry, who owns and operates a family grocery store there on Grand Isle. She told me, with tears in her eyes, that the moratorium was shutting down the coast and that it was hurting her business more than the actual oil spill. People like Ms. Landry are still learning to cope with the impact of the oil disaster, and now they feel they are being dealt a second blow--this time by their own government. Louisiana has a working coast where people make good paychecks producing domestic energy that drives our Nation. They want to get back to work doing the jobs they love, the jobs that provide good lives for their families. The Childers-Melancon amendment will lift the moratorium in a responsible way and allow our workers to continue producing energy. It will still hold companies accountable for higher safety standards so that we never again experience a disaster such as that like Deepwater. On behalf of the workers of the gulf coast, on behalf of the small businesses, and on behalf of all of the people of my State who thought they had made it through the worst part of this disaster, I urge my colleagues to vote for this amendment to lift this administration's offshore drilling moratorium to make life better and as normal as possible for an area that has been devastated several times over the last several years. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. MELANCON. I would accept the time.

Mr. MELANCON. In light of the concern of the chairman of the committee and the whole of the bill, which is his jurisdiction, I respectfully yield to his opinion on how he wants that handled.

Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 502, had I been present, I would have voted ``yes.''

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. Thank you, Mr. Rahall. I thank the 216 people that stood by me to try and protect what is best and loved by the people of south Louisiana and the entire State. Yes, 80 percent of the people in Louisiana believe that they are directly or indirectly affected by this moratorium, directly and indirectly affected by the spill. So what do we do? If we have it the way of the other side, we will send rigs back out, not inspect them, the hell with it. Next thing we know, we're back where we started. My amendment provides for safety inspection in accordance with a rolling stock, to get people back to work, to make sure that America has energy, to make sure the people of my district and the State of Louisiana have jobs, good jobs, and we can continue the prosperity that we have had in the past.

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, Keith Jones' father, Gordon Jones, and I spent several hours together in recent weeks traveling back to Louisiana. A quote that he said, ``When Michelle tells her boys about their dad, she's not going to show them a pay stub. She will tell them how much their father loved them. I want to say how offensive it is when the law recognizes only pecuniary loss in cases like these 11 deaths. Please believe me; no amount of money can ever compensate us for Gordon's death. We know that. But this is the only means available to begin to make things right,'' and to make them right for Michelle and the two boys. Mr. Speaker, 11 men died in the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, and as a 90-year old law stands now, the families that lost their loved ones cannot hold those responsible for the harm they have caused them. I have met with the family members of those workers and have seen the pain on their faces. While we cannot relieve these families from the unimaginable grief they will go through for the rest of their lives--losing a husband, a father, a brother, and a son--we fix a law that's clearly outdated and wrong. When it comes to compensating victims' families, current law is inconsistent, lax, and encourages companies to take risks--gambling with the lives of workers throughout the process. Today, we have the opportunity to change those laws, and the SPILL Act does exactly that. This bill amends the Death on the High Seas Act and the Jones Act so that the surviving relatives can recover some measure of compensation for the loss they have suffered. It is impossible to replace a husband or a father, but just compensation is absolutely necessary to help these families pay their house note, put food on table, educate the children, and live a decent life.

Mr. MELANCON. We know that current law encourages risky behavior. We've seen through the ongoing investigations into the Horizon disaster that BP chose to ignore safety concerns about the volatility of their well. As a result, hardworking men lost their lives and we have the worst environmental disaster in our Nation's history in the Gulf of Mexico. We can't let current law stand. Congress must act now so that we encourage safe operating policies and hold companies accountable to the highest standard of workplace safety. I want to thank Chairman Conyers and the Judiciary Committee for working so swiftly to fix this law, and I urge all my colleagues to side with the victims' families and not the irresponsible corporations. I urge a ``yes'' vote.

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of thousands of Louisiana families that have worked tirelessly in the seafood industry to deliver shrimp, oysters, crab and countless varieties of fish to restaurants and markets across this country. While the news coverage of the BP oil spill is constantly reminding us that we are facing the largest environmental disaster in our Nation's history, it is imperative that we prevent another disaster from developing, that of the death of the Louisiana seafood industry. I come to the floor today to let you know that Louisiana seafood on the market is safe to eat. There's daily testing, as never before, of all seafood catches, by local, State, Federal experts and scientists. To aide in this oversight, Congressman Boyd of Florida and I sent a letter to the President requesting that a seafood safety task force be assembled. Their mission would be to further ensure the safety and wholesomeness of gulf-harvested commercial seafood products that are being presently gathered. Some areas of our coastline are now closed to fishing. These closures are necessary and should underscore our steadfast commitment to consumer safety. But the world must know that approximately 40 percent of our oyster areas are open and harvesting, and 70 percent of our coast remains open to commercial and recreational fishing.

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. MELANCON. Madam Speaker, pursuant to clause 1, rule I, I demand a vote on agreeing to the Speaker's approval of the Journal.

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. Thank you, Representative Speier. Thank you all very much. I rise today with a heavy heart to remember the 11 men that died on the offshore rig Deepwater Horizon. Those men and thousands of them like them, women included, travel out to offshore rigs every day to work hard and provide opportunities for the rest of us to make a living. As the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico continues to grow, we see shorelines, fisheries, and other economies threatened. This unprecedented event has the entire gulf coast and country watching to see how soon we can end this. Setting aside the present crisis for a moment, I am proud to stand with Members of this Congress to remember those men who represent a very human face to this tragedy. I would also like to take a moment to recognize the families of those 11 people. Those men were doing what so many other men and women do in Louisiana every day. They were working to provide a better life for their families while braving difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions to provide domestic energy needed to drive our Nation and our economy. Our thoughts are with these families, and I pray that their grief is not forgotten by the rest of us. And we should also recognize the courageous work of the emergency responders who fought the blaze and saved lives that night. The loss of those 11 workers is a high cost to their families, and so I ask everyone to please remember the personal side to this tragedy as we move forward. Please keep them in your thoughts and, particularly, keep them in your prayers.

Mr. MELANCON

Mr. MELANCON. Let me just start by saying in New Orleans we have what is known as the Who Dats. That is the people that have been loyal since day one. We now have in New Orleans a group called the Renew Dats, which is the group that wasn't sure every year, and the Saints had to try and prove themselves. And we now have a group of people in New Orleans and Louisiana and in the South and in the Nation for that matter called the New Dats, who have now become believers in the Saints. My 92-year-old mother-in-law has been a fan of the Manning family, since she comes from North Mississippi, and it took her until Super Bowl Sunday morning to reconcile how she handled the daughters, particularly the one that lives in Louisiana, my wife, and the New Orleans Saints versus the Baltimore Colts and Peyton Manning. That Sunday morning she called her daughter and said, ``Peachy, I figured it out. Peyton has a Super Bowl ring, so I will pull for the New Orleans Saints today.'' And Peachy turned around and said, ``It looks like we're going to win it.'' So with that, New Orleans has seen an historic occasion. It is euphoric in its mood. It is in a new time, if you would, because of the excitement, the love of the franchise, the team players themselves, the coaches, and the people that have made this such a great and wonderful year. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have?

Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to my friend from Indiana (Mr. Carson) to express his gratitude for the New Orleans Saints winning. I think that is what he wants to say.

Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, I am proud to present House Resolution 1079 for consideration. This resolution congratulates the National Football League Champion New Orleans Saints for winning Super Bowl XLIV and for bringing New Orleans its first Lombardi Trophy in franchise history. House Resolution 1079 was introduced by my friend and colleague, Representative Joseph Cao of Louisiana, on February 9, 2010, and enjoys the support of over 70 Members of Congress. Mr. Speaker, on February 7, 2010, after a hard fought and dramatic game, the New Orleans Saints, playing in their first ever championship game, defeated the Indianapolis Colts by a score of 31-17 to win Super Bowl XLIV. The victory is the first championship in the Saints' 43-year history and caps a truly remarkable season for the franchise. The Saints finished the regular season with a franchise best 13 wins and 3 losses. During the 2009 season, they led the National Football League in average points per game and yards per game. Furthermore, the 2009-2010 Saints set franchise records for most points and most touchdowns in a season, as well as most interceptions returned for a touchdown in a single game. Still, it was during the Super Bowl that the Saints truly distinguished themselves as the best team in the NFL. Despite facing a formidable opponent in the Indianapolis Colts, led by a New Orleans native, Peyton Manning, the Saints relied on head coach Sean Payton's aggressive game plan and the outstanding play of starting quarterback Drew Brees to win the game. Brees, who was named Super Bowl MVP, passed for 288 yards, threw two touchdown passes, and tied a Super Bowl record with 32 pass completions. Along with Brees' impressive performance, Saints kicker Garrett Hartley set a Super Bowl record by making three field goals of over 40 yards. The Saints also successfully executed a risky onside kick to start the second half of the game. And Tracy Porter's--a Port Allen native--74-yard interception return for a touchdown ensured the Saints' victory. The New Orleans Saints' success in Super Bowl XLIV stands as a testament to what can be achieved through hard work, dedication, and a never-say-never spirit. In fact, the Saints' motto throughout the 2009- 2010 season was ``Finish Strong.'' And they certainly did. The Saints' commitment to teamwork and to the achievement of excellence is both inspiring and commendable. Furthermore, their victory has helped raise the spirits of the City of New Orleans and the entire State of Louisiana in the midst of the region's continued reconstruction efforts following Hurricane Katrina and subsequent hurricanes. For all these reasons, the New Orleans Saints' achievement deserves our praise. And personally, I want to applaud the team's players, coaches, management, and all those who helped them accomplish this historic event. Mr. Speaker, let us as a body take the opportunity to commend this year's Super Bowl champions through the passage of House Resolution 1079, which congratulates the New Orleans Saints on winning Super Bowl XLIV and for bringing New Orleans its first Lombardi Trophy in franchise history. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1079) congratulating the National Football League Champion New Orleans Saints for winning Super Bowl XLIV and for bringing New Orleans its first Lombardi Trophy in franchise history, as amended.