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Markey Capps Urges Senate Republicans to Stop Providing Cover to BPSep 30, 2010 (Congressional Documents and Publications/ContentWorks via COMTEX) -- 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 Presidential commission investigating the BP oil spill from coming to the Senate floor for a vote. 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. "While the commission is getting to the bottom of how this catastrophe happened, BP and other companies involved with the spill are still giving it the runaround. Senate Republicans need to stop providing cover for Big Oil, and pass my bill giving the commission subpoena power so it can report back to the President by the January deadline with all the facts that led to this environmental and economic catastrophe. Without this critical tool - which the co-chairmen have asked for - Big Oil will keep stonewalling the investigation in the hopes they can escape being held accountable for their mistakes. The American people deserve a full accounting and that's what the Senate Republicans obstruction is preventing. This bill passed the House almost unanimously, and Senate Republicans won't even let it come to the floor. They should be embarrassed," said Capps. "By blocking the commission subpoena power, Republican obstructionists in the Senate are shielding BP from investigators tasked with getting to the bottom of this crime," said Markey. "The BP oil spill was the worst environmental disaster in our nation's history, lives were lost and livelihoods ruined. Yet Senate Republicans have chosen to stand with BP instead of with the families living and working in the Gulf." |