Gulf Oil Mess, Day 65: Obama refuses to answer Florida Senator LeMieux’s request for skimmers

U.S. Senator George LeMieux (R-FL) yesterday sent a letter to National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen requesting a regular and public update on the number of skimmer vessels participating in the Gulf oil spill response effort.

Twenty is the number of verified oil skimmers off the coast of Florida. As of June 22, the State of Florida has independently hired five (5) additional skimmers due to federal inaction, bringing the new total for oil skimmers off the coast of Florida to twenty-five 25.

Says LeMieux, ‘I think the thing that is outrageous is that we only have twenty skimmers off the coast of Florida. There are 2,000 skimmers in the United States . . . . having only one percent of the nation's skimmers off of Florida's Gulf Coast during the worst environmental disaster in our country's history is pathetic.’

When asked if President Obama is just dropping the ball Senator LeMieux replied ‘well, he is . . . he said to me, look, some of these skimmers we can't take from other places in the country because they may need them for an oil spill. That's like me saying well I can't sent a fire truck to your house that is burning down because another house may burn down; it just doesn't make any sense.’

On August 28, 2009, Florida Governor Charlie Crist announced George LeMieux's appointment to the U.S. Senate to fill out the remainder of Senator Mel Martinez's unexpired term. He was sworn in to the U.S. Senate on September 10, 2009.

Senator LeMieux has introduced several pieces of legislation, most focused on ways to better control and reduce federal spending, fraud and abuse.

He has also proposed a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget by 2013; a bill that would temporarily reduce payroll taxes of employees and employers; and cutting the debt in half by 2020.

Hank Richards from the Examiner called the Senators office today for details on the skimmer requests and he was unavailable for comment. His Washington, DC telephone number is (202) 224-3041.

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