Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, as we've had hearings regarding the oil spill out in the gulf, there have been some staggering things come forward, and the media is not grabbing it like they should and letting everyone know.
Who knew that the inspectors inspecting the offshore rigs were unionized? So they had union limits on how many hours and travel and this kind of thing. These guys are like the military. They're out there to protect the environment, and we're going to put limits on them? They've got to be out there protecting us.
And then yesterday, Director Birnbaum, when asked what kind of checks and balances did you have, she said, We sent them out in pairs of two. And then I asked, Well, then was it a good idea that the last inspection team of two was a unionized father-and-son team that went out there to carefully watch each other to make sure each other did the right thing? This is outrageous.
And then we had the investigation going on as to what gifts may have been given to the people doing the inspections.
This thing stinks, and it needs to be cleaned up.