January, 28 2011, 02:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Caitlin MacNeal,COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER,(202) 347-1122,cmacneal@pogo.org
BP Oil Spill Bills Revive the Reforms Needed to Prevent another Disaster
WASHINGTON
Reps.
Edward Markey (D-Mass.), George Miller (D-Calif.), and colleagues
introduced two bills this week that include essential reforms aimed at
correcting many of the systemic problems that led to the BP oil spill in
the Gulf of Mexico, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) said
Friday.
The "Implementing the Recommendations of the BP Oil Spill Commission
Act"(H.R. 501) incorporates recommendations from the independent oil
commission and reforms from the CLEAR Act (H.R. 3534), which the House
passed last year with POGO's support. The legislation reorganizes the
U.S. Department of the Interior, statutorily ends the royalty-in-kind
program, improves training for government inspectors, and mandates
additional study of the effects of dispersants.
Although the bill has restrictions on employment to slow the revolving
door between government and industry, it only applies to the highest
paid Interior Department employees. Congress must recognize that the
coziness between regulators and industry that helped lead to this
disaster are present and must be addressed throughout Interior.
Markey and Miller also re-introduced legislation to provide
best-practice whistleblower protections for offshore oil and gas
industry employees (H.R. 503), which POGO supported and which passed the
House by an overwhelming majority last year. This bill will go a long
way to improve the safety of offshore drilling by protecting the workers
who warn us of potential problems.
"If the policies called for in these bills had been in place, the
Deepwater Horizon tragedy might have been averted," POGO Executive
Director Danielle Brian said. "We're very supportive of Reps. Markey and
Miller and their cosponsors as they revive critical reforms to improve
the safety of offshore drilling, restore fairness for taxpayers in
royalty payments, and ensure better oversight of the oil and gas
industry."
POGO urged Congress to fix the failures that led to the BP Gulf oil
disaster in POGO's Reform Agenda: A Good Government Guide for the 112th Congress.
Related:
Interior Agency Needs to Dig Deeper on Reforms
House Panel Moves Towards Better Oversight in Wake of Deepwater Horizon Disaster
The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is an independent nonprofit that investigates and exposes corruption and other misconduct in order to achieve a more effective, accountable, open and honest federal government.
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On Kent State Massacre Anniversary, Progressives Decry Repression of Student Protests
"The militarized repression of young people speaking out against a terrible war was shameful then and it's shameful now," said one state lawmaker.
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As U.S. Republicans push for the deployment of National Guard troops to quell nationwide student demonstrations against the Gaza genocide, progressive lawmakers marked the anniversary of the 1970 Kent State Massacre by condemning police repression of peaceful protesters and reaffirming the power of dissent.
"On the 54th anniversary of the Kent State Massacre, students across our country are being brutalized for standing up to endless war," Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-Mo.) said on social media. "Our country must learn to actually uphold the rights of free speech and assembly upon which it was founded."
Fellow "Squad" member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said that "54 years ago, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on unarmed students at Kent State."
"Students have a right to speak out, organize, and protest systemic wrongs," she added. "We can't silence those expressing dissent, no matter how uncomfortable their protests may be to those in power."
On May 4, 1970, 28 Ohio National Guard troops fired 67 live rounds into a crowd of unarmed Kent State students rallying against the expansion of the U.S.-led war in Vietnam into Cambodia. They murdered students Allison Krause, Jeffrey Glenn Miller, Sandra Lee Scheuer, and William Knox Schroeder—all aged 19 or 20. Nine other students were wounded, including one who was permanently paralyzed.
"The militarized repression of young people speaking out against a terrible war was shameful then and it's shameful now," New York state Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher (D-50) said on Saturday.
Protests against Israel's assault on Gaza—which according to Palestinian and international officials has killed, maimed, or left missing more than 123,000 Gazans—have spread to dozens of campuses across the U.S. and around the world. Police have been called in to break up protest encampments at numerous schools. Hundreds of students, faculty, and journalists have been arrested, sometimes violently.
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As law enforcement officials have tried to justify the crackdown by claiming "outside agitators" are behind the protests, some observers noted historical parallels.
"Watching what is happening at UCLA," Virginia state Sen. Mamie Locke (D-2) said on social media. "Old enough to remember Kent State, Jackson State, South Carolina State, and the dog whistles of 'law and order,' 'outside agitators.' So reminiscent of 1968."
On February 8, 1968, police shot 31 students—most of them in the back—at a protest against Jim Crow segregation at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, murdering three young Black men: Samuel Hammond Jr., Delano Middleton, and Henry Smith.
Eleven days after Kent State, police opened fire on a crowd of Black students protesting the bombing of Cambodia at Jackson State College in Jackson, Mississippi, killing Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green and injuring 12 others.
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According to Palestinian and international officials, Israel's 211-day assault on Gaza—which many experts including Israelis call genocidal—has killed or maimed more than 123,000 Palestinians since the Hamas-led October 7 attacks, including an estimated 11,000 people who are believed to be dead and buried beneath the ruins of the hundreds of thousands of destroyed or damaged homes and other buildings.
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Republican Georgia Congressman Mike Collins came under fire Friday over a social media post applauding video of white University of Mississippi students racially abusing a Black woman participating in a campus protest for Palestine.
Collins posted the video—in which numerous people can be heard grunting like apes and one young man is seen jumping up and down like a monkey in front of the Black woman—with the caption, "Ole Miss taking care of business."
Collins—or whoever's in charge of his social media accounts—sparred with Black leaders who called out his racism. When former Democratic Ohio state senator Nina Turner said the video showed "anti-Blackness," the congressman shot back, "*Anti-terroristness."
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Around 30 protesters were rallying in support of Palestine in the Ole Miss Quad when counter-protesters gathered near the demonstrators. Some booed and chanted, "We want Trump!" Others singled out the Black woman—who NBC Newssaid is a graduate student at the school—chanting "Lizzo, Lizzo, Lizzo," "take a shower," "your nose is huge," "fuck you, fat bitch," and "lock her up!"
The counter-protesters also sang the "Star-Spangled Banner." Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves shared a separate video of the singing students on social media, captioning his post, "Warms my heart" and "I love Mississippi."
No racist language can be heard in the video shared by Reeves.
The Daily Mississippianreports the demonstrators were escorted off the Quad after counter-protesters threw water bottles at them.
Collins is no stranger to accusations of racism. Earlier this year, he suggested murdering migrants by throwing them from helicopters into the sea, in the manner of U.S.-backed South American dictators in the 1970s.
He also
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Ole Miss said Friday that "statements were made at the demonstration on our campus Thursday that were offensive and inappropriate."
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