American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010

Floor Speech

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Madam President, I think we are witnessing exhibit B to Senator Dorgan's exhibit A about what the problems are in this Chamber.

I don't understand what is so objectionable. In the House, 169 Republicans voted in favor of giving the Presidential commission subpoena power. They understand how important that is because this commission begins their investigation in the next few weeks. This should not be a partisan issue. I don't understand why my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are turning this into a partisan issue.

I find it unbelievable that after everything the people of the gulf region have endured, and that this entire country has witnessed for over 2 months now, that anyone is still standing with the oil company that caused this disaster instead of the victims who are suffering from it.

We recently learned that while BP was publicly telling us that the Deepwater Horizon rig was leaking an estimated 5,000 barrels of oil a day, internal BP documents showed, in a worst-case scenario, up to 100,000 barrels of oil could actually leak into the Gulf of Mexico. What that says to me is that we need to make sure when we are investigating this oilspill, whether it be with employees of BP or anyone else, that they are being straight with the American people. That is what subpoena power would do. If we want to get to the bottom of what happened so we can stop it from happening again, the Presidential commission needs the authority to compel people to provide documents and to testify under oath.

The full devastation of this catastrophic spill is far from being known, but surely we know now that it will be one of the worst, if not the worst, economic and environmental disasters in American history. We need to make sure this never happens again. The Presidential commission needs subpoena power to get the job done for the American people. The House moved quickly to pass this legislation and the Senate should now pass this important legislation also. I can't understand why anyone is objecting to this.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

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