Reps. Michael C. Burgess (R-Lewisville) and Joe Barton (R-Arlington) joined several senior House lawmakers today on a visit to the site of the BP oil spill, about 40 miles offshore Venice, La. Burgess, Barton and others were briefed on the clean-up operation by U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry and flew over the spill in a C-140.

The photo to the right was provided by Burgess, who captured it on his Blackberry as he peered out over the Gulf of Mexico.

"There is no way to appreciate the magnitude of the problem without coming here and looking at it," Burgess said late Friday. "Flying over mile after mile after mile of it, you get a sense of how big a problem it is."

Burgess said BP and the Coast Guard were cooperating to contain the spill and stop the leaks. A 78-ton containment dome was being lowered over one of the leaks but won't solve the entire problem, he said. Some oil could still bubble up from underneath the dome, he said.

House lawmakers plan a hearing for Wednesday on the oil spill, and Democrats are sure to grill BP and Transocean, the operator of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. An officer of Cameron, the maker of the mechanism that failed to stop the blowout, also will be on the hot seat.

Republicans want to probe the role of the Minerals Management Service, the Interior Department agency charged with regulating the oil and gas industry. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that MMS has a long history of deferring to the oil industry when it comes to inspections and regulations. The report noted that MMS faces a conflict of interest: it oversees the industry, but also must promote resource production that earns revenue for the government.

"My understanding is the Mineral Management Service had inspected this particular well and this particular blowout preventer just a little over a week before the blowout happened and had said, 'you are good,'" Burgess said. "Obviously, I want to know a lot more detail about that."

The Minerals Management Service was dogged by scandals during the Bush administration, including the disclosure in 2008 that agency officials accepted gifts and engaged in drug use and sex with industry officials.

"Those criticisms were out in the public domain," he said. "If the Obama administration came in and did not respond to those shortcomings, that is a problem."


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