Lieberman is chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate today that carries the first congressional hearing with government officials about the leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

During the hearing, which involved the secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, Lieberman questioned whether the Minerals Management Service (MMS) has done enough to ensure a correct answer before a disaster like this.

Lieberman asked, for example, the agency said did not demand that British Petroleum, operator of the platform that sank on April 20 and caused the disaster, had a better plan to deal with an accident as occurred.

“Until these questions are not answered satisfactorily do not see how our government could allow to explore additional wells in deep waters,” said Lieberman.

“I know that deepwater oil is important for our energy independence, but the U.S. Government has a responsibility to public safety is more important and I’m afraid that did not comply fully with this responsibility in this case,” the senator added.

The U.S. government temporarily froze to grant additional permissions to farms in deep water.

In turn, Napolitano today defended the Government’s response to the disaster by saying that they are devoting all available resources to deal with what happened. Napolitano said during the hearing that the worst that can happen is that the leak is extended “for a long time.”

Secretary of Homeland Security declined to say if you feel optimistic and merely ensure that faces the work “day by day.”

“We are in the midst of a crisis,” said Napolitano, who said the government’s work now is just “then acting.”

BP said today that attempts to fully contain the spill in the Gulf of Mexico this week and noted that the tube installed on the main outlet for oil this weekend as it will capture a fifth of oil flowing to the sea.

According to official statistics, challenged by a growing number of scientists, every day five million barrels of oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, the equivalent of about 800,000 liters.
The newly installed pipe would capture about one thousand barrels, which are transported to a vessel on the surface.

The tube has a length of 1600 meters, the distance between the seabed and the Discoverer Enterprise, the ship that stores crude oil and burning gas at the surface.