Congress Approves RESTORE Act

June 30, 2012

Florida and other Gulf states will share the bulk of any monies received from BP under the RESTORE act passed by Congress Friday.

The bill, which was part of a larger transportation measure, earmarks 80 percent of water pollution fines BP is expected to pay for restoration efforts in Gulf States, which bore the brunt of the damage from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.

The company is facing fines of between $5 billion and $21 billion for violation of the federal Clean Water Act.

Voting against the measure in the House were Republican Reps. Sandy Adams, Bill Posey, Connie Mack, Richard Nugent and Dennis Ross. In the Senate, the Florida delegation split, with Democrat Bill Nelson voting in favor and Republican Marco Rubio voting against.

The RESTORE Act was included in a larger transportation bill. Also included in the bill was a continuation of low-interest rates loans for college students. The interest rates on guaranteed student loans were slated to double if no action was taken.

Comments

One Response to “Congress Approves RESTORE Act”

  1. Bobby on June 30th, 2012 8:02 am

    I bet that Florida Governer Scott would like to turn this money down. I wonder how our county will squander there portion. Maybe they can built more rural county office buildings or pave perfectly good roads just to spend it. Or use the money to pay and keep unneeded county employees. Maybe build a new jail in a flood area like in the city with the other flood proned county buildings.