Florida House Will Examine GCCF Oil Spill Claims Process

On Thursday, Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, turned to one of his staunchest allies, Rep. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, who chairs the House Economic Affairs Committee, to investigate how the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) handles claims resulting from the Gulf oil spill.

As you know, in the months that followed the tragic Deepwater Horizon incident last spring, the Florida House of Representatives established workgroups charged with monitoring the ongoing impact of the oil spill on families, businesses and communities along Floridas Gulf Coast, wrote Cannon in a letter sent out on Thursday. From the onset of the spill, the structure and efficiency of the BP claims process has been an item of particular concern. Following a significant number of complaints, the White House and BP agreed to set up an independent process for private claims, and Mr. Kenneth Feinberg was selected to administer the process through the Gulf Coast Claims Facility. Payments made by the GCCF would come from an escrow account created by BP, to which BP agreed to contribute $20 billion over the next four years. The GCCF opened on Aug. 23, 2010.

During the summer months, the House observed the private claims process and made several findings and recommendation, continued Cannon. When the workgroup tasked with reviewing the scope of private-sector damages and processes for compensation concluded its review at the end of August, the GCCF had just been established, and the claims process and protocols were not yet fully implemented. As such, the workgroup recommended that the House continue to monitor the private-sector damages and compensation process.

As of Jan. 10, 2011, the Gulf Coast Claims Facility reports 157,297 claimants in its system, added Cannon.The facility has paid almost $1.2 billion to 68,221 claimants. Recently, numerous breakdowns and inconsistencies within the claims process have been brought to my attention. As a result of these issues and given the proximity to the beginning of the 2011 legislation session, I am directing the Economic Affairs Committee to conduct a review of the private compensation process.

Fostering an economic environment that leads to private-sector job creation is our top priority over the next two years, closed Cannon.At the state level, we must work to ensure that those Floridians who suffered losses as a result of the Deepwater Horizon incident are made whole, and that obligation requires us to keep abreast of any problems within the current claims process.