For immediate release: Thursday, July 15, 2010
Contact: Oversight and Government Reform Press Office, (202) 225-5051

Chairman Towns Announces Hearing

to Examine MMS Reorganization

WASHINGTON – Chairman Edolphus “Ed” Towns (D-NY) today announced that the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold a hearing on July 22, 2010, to examine issues surrounding the Department of the Interior’s oversight of offshore oil drilling, including issues regarding the reorganization of the Minerals Management Service (MMS).

The hearing will examine how the reorganization of MMS, now known as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement, will improve the oversight of the offshore oil and gas industry. In May, Chairman Towns opened the committee’s investigation into the serious lapses in oversight and regulatory failures at MMS in the years leading up to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Last month, as part of the committee’s investigation into the disaster, Chairman Towns and Ranking Member Darrell Issa (R-CA) toured areas off the coast of New Orleans affected by the oil spill and spoke with the Unified Command operation that is working to contain the spill.

The hearing will take place on Thursday, July 22, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. in room 2154 Rayburn House Office Building. A webcast of the hearing will be available on the committee’s website: http://oversight.house.gov.
 

The witnesses invited to testify are:

The Honorable Ken Salazar

Secretary

U.S. Department of the Interior

Mr. Michael R. Bromwich

Director

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement

U.S. Department of the Interior

Ms. Mary L. Kendall

Acting Inspector General

Office of Inspector General

Department of the Interior

Mr. Frank Rusco

Director, Natural Resources and the Environment

Government Accountability Office

Ms. Danielle Brian

Executive Director

Project On Government Oversight

The Honorable Charlotte Randolph

President

LaFourche Parish, Louisiana

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