WASHINGTON, DC—Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) released the following statement Wednesday on the final report of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, a presidential panel investigating the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year:

"The report demonstrates the need to strengthen regulation of offshore oil drilling to ensure that a disaster of this magnitude never happens again.

"I was especially pleased by the panel’s call for Congress to provide mandatory funding for oil spill response technology research and development, at least at a level above what was authorized in 1990, which was when the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) was passed into law.

"Last year, the House of Representatives passed my bill, H.R. 2693, the Oil Pollution Research and Development Program Reauthorization Act, which, for the first time since 1990, would have increased the authorized level of appropriations for oil spill response technology from $22 million to $48 million. This legislation also would have provided $12 million in grants to institutions of higher learning and research centers to improve technologies used to prevent, combat, and clean up oil spills.

"Unfortunately, the bill was not taken up by the Senate.

"The Commission’s report on the Deepwater Horizon tragedy underscores the need to increase funding for oil spill response, prevention, and mitigation technology research and development, and I look forward to working with the Administration and the Senate to address this issue in the 112^th Congress."