WASHINGTON - Today, Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif) and Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass) urged Senate Republicans to stop blocking legislation giving subpoena power to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill investigating the BP oil spill from coming to the Senate floor for a vote.
At a hearing today in Washington D.C to present the preliminary findings of the commission’s investigation, Fred Bartlit, lead counsel for the commission expressed his dismay that the commission has not been granted subpoena power by Congress:
“Because I don't have subpoena power, I have to look you in the eye and say I’m telling you what people told me. I can't subpoena people and put them under oath. I wish I could. I think it's damned important, but it's the way it goes.”
“It is clear after hearing Mr. Bartlit’s testimony that without subpoena power the oil spill commission is operating without all of the tools it needs to conduct a thorough investigation of BP’s disaster. It’s really astonishing that Senate Republicans have not allowed a bill that passed the House nearly unanimously to even come to the floor for the vote. They need to stop defending Big Oil and allow this bill to come to the floor when Congress returns to Washington next week,” said Capps.
“Every day that Senate Republicans block subpoena power for the independent commission is another day BP, Halliburton and Transocean can duck and dodge the panel’s hardest questions,” said Rep. Markey. “The commission has already shown its value, and Senate Republicans should stop protecting the companies responsible for the spill by preventing the pursuit of the truth in this disaster,” said Markey.
Background:
On June 8th, Capps introduced legislation to give the Presidential commission subpoena power (H.R. 5481). The bill passed the House of Representatives 420-1 on June 23, 2010. The language was also included in the House-passed CLEAR Act (H.R. 3534).
Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) introduced companion legislation (S. 3462) in the Senate. Previous attempts to bring the House-passed bill to the floor under unanimous consent were blocked by Senate Republicans.
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