Durbin: No Taxpayer Dollars Should Be Spent on Oil Clean-Up

Tuesday, June 1, 2010  By: Susie An

Oil continues to spill into the Gulf of Mexico while BP continues efforts to stop the leak.

Illinois U.S. Senator Dick Durbin says taxpayer dollars won't be spent on the disaster, and BP must pay for all the damages. Durbin says the federal government won't be taking over clean-up.

DURBIN: We don't have the equipment. We review what is done by the private sector. But this is a case where the private sector really has the equipment to respond to this. We need to make that they're using every available, feasible means to cap this well as quickly as possible.

The spill began after an oil rig exploded off Louisiana's coast. The federal government estimates the leak has released between 18 million and 40 million gallons of oil into the Gulf. It's the worst spill in American history.