A member of the subcommittee, Rep. Gene Taylor, a Mississippi Democrat and Coast Guard veteran, is expected to ask particularly pointed questions. In a recent interview, he faulted his former branch of the service for allowing foreign and privately regulated entities to proliferate in U.S.-protected waters, many operating with standards that may not be embraced by the Coast Guard.

"They should have spotted this problem," said Taylor, whose district includes the shipbuilding center of Pascagoula. "They should have come to us and said, 'You need to tighten up the law,''' making clear what U.S. standards are - and enforcing them.

"There has been a tendency within the Coast Guard to take some functions that I think are inherently governmental and let [private companies] do their job for them," Taylor said. "If you want the privilege of dealing in American territorial waters, then you should be an American flagged, an American built ad American owned vessel that should be inspected by the U.S. Coast Guard," Taylor said.

If the Deepwater Horizon were flying a U.S. flag, some maritime experts say it likely would have been classified in such a way that a licensed captain was in charge at all times. However, the ship was flagged to the Republic of the Marshall Islands and that nation allowed a drilling manager to be in charge of the vessel while it was seeking oil in the Gulf.

While the Marshall Islands fleet is generally well regarded, this classification has raised questions from lawyers about whether the ship's owner, Swiss-based TransOcean, deliberately sought less rigorous manning requirements, a charge the company has denied.

The Deepwater Horizon maintains its position over a drilling rig using constantly operating thruster engines that are governed by a satellite navigation system. A similar "dynamically positioned vessels" in the U.S. fleet, the GSF Explorer, has been classified in such a way that a licensed captain - or master -- is in charge at all times. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Brian Khey, a supervisor at the Outer Continental Shelf National Center of Expertise, said there are so few offshore drilling rigs operating under U.S. flags that the Coast Guard issues manning requirements for those rigs on a case-by-case basis.

The Explorer, a drillship that was built in the 1970s under commission from the CIA, is the only known U.S. flagged ship owned by Transocean. Khey wrote in an e-mail that the Explorer's U.S. inspection certificate "specifically requires a Master... at all times."

In addition to manning requirements, the Coast Guard will also likely be questioned about its inspection system. Ships registered with the Marshall Islands and other countries that operate in U.S. waters must meet international standards. But they are inspected closely only by independent certified inspection companies, and receive only a cursory review from the Coast Guard. The Chairman of the Transportation Committee, James Oberstar, has said he thinks that the Coast Guard's in depth inspection system that applies to U.S. flag vessels should probably apply to all rigs operating in the Gulf of Mexico. Taylor shares that view and faults the Coast Guard for effectively outsourcing inspections of foreign flagged vessels.

"There has been a tendency within the Coast Guard to take some functions that I think are inherently governmental and let [private companies] do their job for them," Taylor said. "If you want the privilege of dealing in American territorial waters, then you should be an American flagged, an American built ad American owned vessel that should be inspected by the U.S. Coast Guard," Taylor said.

In addition to the Coast Guard, members of the subcommittee will question officials from TransOcean, the Swiss based company that operated the ship. The company and the Marshall Islands have denied taking any short cuts in manning or management or safety.

Next week, on June 23 the The House Education and Labor Committee will examine some similar questions in its first hearing on the incident. The witness list has not been completely set but the hearing is titled. "Worker Health and Safety from the Oil rig to the Shoreline." Staff said the Committee will focus in part on management and crew safety aboard vessels like the Deepwater Horizon, as well as risks facing workers cleaning up the spill from shore.

Some crew members have testified already to confusion aboard the Deepwater Horizon on the evening of the explosion and to a general sense that the vessel was understaffed in critical positions.

"Over the years the manning dwindled down and down," said Douglas Harold Brown, chief mechanic aboard the Deepwater Horizon who had been assigned to the floating drilling platform since shortly after it was manufactured in Korea in 2000. "I believe that safety was compromised by this," Brown told the Times/Tribune this week.

Brown's lawyer, Steven Gordon of Gordon, Elias and Seely, a maritime law firm in Houston,says that the Deepwater Horizon's dual command structure created confusion and a delayed response to the growing crisis aboard the Deepwater Horizon.

Officials with the Marshall Islands and the Swiss company operating the rig, TransOcean, deny taking short cuts. They say they fulfilled all requirements of the law, met the highest industry standards and those of U.S. Coast Guard.

Marshal Islands officials point out that their fleet has won repeated awards from the Coast Guard for safety and overall quality. In some international jurisdictions, the Marshall Islands fleet has an overall ratings better than that of the U.S. fleet.