Dear Friend,

Louisiana is still suffering from the job-crushing moratorium put in place after the BP oil spill. The Obama administration shut down the entire offshore oil and gas industry and thousands of jobs were lost because of it. Many Louisianians, including myself, pleaded for answers to why this happened, but we could never get a clear one.

Now we’re seeing extremely alarming evidence showing that Obama administration officials may have tampered with the facts that led to their decision to put the moratorium in place. And further, administration officials may have been hiding information from our Congressional oversight and investigation efforts.

Immediately following the moratorium, I asked the Department of Interior’s Office of the Inspector General to investigate the oil spill report that led to the moratorium and a possible mistake in reporting the facts. At the time, Interior’s IG provided a summary back to me saying any mistakes were inadvertent, but new evidence shows there was likely collaboration between Department of Interior officials and their Inspector General.

It’s pretty outrageous and offensive to know that politics seems to be influencing the office of the Inspector General in addition to potentially manipulating the science. I’m demanding answers because Inspector General offices at federal agencies are supposed to be completely independent and have zero political influence.

In May, Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), whose states were also negatively impacted by the moratorium, joined me in demanding those answers. The good news is that the appropriate oversight authorities are going to investigate (Click here to read more about the investigation of the Interior Department and their office of the Inspector General).

I’ll make sure to keep you posted as we work to get to the bottom of Obama’s job-killing moratorium.

Sincerely,

David Vitter
United States Senator