Good afternoon, everybody.  I know it’s a little warm out here so want to get started.  I’ve just had a meeting with these governors, members of Congress, local officials, as well as Admiral Thad Allen, the National Incident Commander in charge of response efforts to the BP oil spill.  Admiral Allen gave us an update, the latest information on both the efforts to plug the well, as well as giving us an update on arrangements and coordination that's being made with respect to mitigating（镇静，缓和） this damage that's been done.

He updated us on these latest efforts to stop the leak, mitigate the damage to the great beaches of the Gulf coast, and I had the chance to visit with -- Charlotte -- a beach like Port Fourchon that gives you a sense of what extraordinary efforts are being made at the local level, but also the damage that we're already starting to see as a consequence of this spill.

Now, our mission remains the same as it has since this disaster began, since the day I visited Louisiana nearly four weeks ago:  We want to stop the leak; we want to contain and clean up the oil; and we want to help the people of this region return to their lives and their livelihoods（生机，营生） as soon as possible.

And our response treats this event for what it is:  It’s an assault on our shores, on our people, on the regional economy, and on communities like this one.  This isn’t just a mess that we’ve got to mop up（结束，擦） .  People are watching their livelihoods wash up on the beach.  Parents are worried about the implications for their children’s health.  Every resident of this community has watched this nightmare threaten the dreams that they’ve worked so hard to build.  And they want it made right, and they want to make it right now.

I just had a chance to listen to Mayor David Carmadelle of Grande Isle, our host here, telling us heartbreaking stories about fishermen who are trying to figure out where the next paycheck（薪水） is going to come from, how are they going to pay a mortgage（抵押） or a note on their boat.  And he is having to dig into his pocket at this point to make sure that some of them are able to deal with the economic impact.  So this is something that has to be dealt with immediately, not sometime later.  And that’s everybody’s driving focus -- everybody who is standing behind me. This is our highest priority and it deserves a response that is equal to the task.

That’s why this has already been the largest cleanup effort in U.S. history.  On the day this disaster began, even as we launched a search and rescue effort for workers on the drilling rig, we were already staging equipment in the event of a larger-scale spill.  By the time we discovered the third breach, a week after the Deepwater Horizon platform sank, we had already stationed more than 70 vessels and hundreds of thousands of feet of protective boom on site.

Today, there are more than 20,000 people in the region working around the clock to contain and clean up this spill.  We’ve activated about 1,400 members of the National Guard across four states.  Nearly 1,400 vessels are aiding in the containment and cleanup effort.  And we deployed more than 3 million feet of hard and sorbent（吸附剂） boom, including an additional 100,000 just yesterday for these parishes（教区） in Louisiana that face the greatest threat.

Now, I’ve made clear to Admiral Allen and I did so again today that he should get whatever he needs to deal with this crisis.  Whatever he needs, he will get.

Right now, we’re still within the window where we don’t yet know the outcome of the highly complex top kill procedure that the federal government authorized BP to use to try to stop the leak.  If it is successful, it would obviously be welcome news.  If it’s not, a team of some of the world’s top scientists, engineers and experts, led by our Energy Secretary and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu, has for some time being -- has for some time been exploring any and all reasonable contingency plans（应急计划） .

But our response will continue with its full force regardless of the outcome of the top kill approach -- because even if the leak was stopped today it wouldn’t change the fact that these waters still contain oil from what is now the largest spill in American history.  And more of it will come ashore.

To ensure that we’re fully prepared for that, and in accordance with（依照，一致） input from folks down here, I’ve directed Secretary Napolitano and Admiral Allen to triple the manpower in places where oil has hit the shore or is within 24 hours of impact.  This increase will allow us to further intensify this already historic response, contain and remove oil more quickly, and help minimize the time that any oil comes into contact with our coastline.  That means deploying more boom, cleaning more beaches, performing more monitoring of wildlife and impact to this ecosystem（生态系统） .

We’re also going to continue to do whatever it takes to help Americans whose livelihoods have been upended（竖立，颠倒） by this spill.  Gulf Coast residents should know that we’ve gathered all pertinent information regarding available assistance and the federal response in one place at whitehouse.gov.

We have ordered BP to pay economic injury claims, and we will make sure they deliver.  And the parish presidents and governors here in Louisiana were already giving us some sense of some of the bureaucratic（官僚政治的） problems that we’re going to have to cut through, but we are going to cut through them.  And for those who are in economic distress, if you’ve already filed a claim and you’re not satisfied with the resolution, then whitehouse.gov will point you in the right direction.

As I said yesterday, the Small Business Administration has stepped in to help businesses by approving loans, but also as important, allowing many to defer（推迟，延期） existing loan payments.  A lot of folks are still loaded up with loans that they had from Katrina and other natural disasters down here, so they may need some additional help.