Full Committee Hearing: Offshore Drilling: Will Interior's Reforms Change Its History of Failed Oversight?

On Thursday, July 22, 2010, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold a hearing entitled, "Offshore Drilling: Will Interior's Reforms change Its History of Failed Oversight?" The hearing will 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 also 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.