This came from a release out of Sen. David Vitter’s office, and the slow burn we’ve been doing since finding out about Harry Reid’s $1.1 trillion ransom note yesterday ignited into a full blaze…

U.S. Sen. David Vitter today made the following comments on the U.S. Senate floor following reports that the Interior Department, despite its claims of being understaffed and underfunded, completed a technical assistance workshop on offshore oil and gas regulatory programs for the government of Papua New Guinea this week.

“I find it outrageous that the same Interior Department that can’t get a single exploration plan or deepwater drilling permit out the door apparently has the resources to send staff to a three-day workshop halfway around the world in Papua New Guinea to discuss offshore permitting.  After months of foot-dragging and repeated claims that it needs more money to hire more staff to dedicate to offshore permitting, Interior’s choice to allocate funds to the government of Papua New Guinea is a disgrace to the people of the Gulf Coast.  Those folks continue to suffer through the ongoing de facto moratorium on Gulf drilling while this administration only responds with decisions that crush domestic energy production and destroy good-paying jobs,” said Vitter.

Vitter has been a vocal critic of the administration’s slow rolling of new offshore permits in the Gulf of Mexico.  He’s also placed a hold on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist, Dr. Scott Doney, until he gets a hearing in the U.S. Senate Small Business Committee with Obama Environmental Czar Carol Browner and Steve Black to explain why they put politics ahead of science when deciding to enact a job-crushing moratorium on offshore energy exploration in the Western Gulf of Mexico.