Crude oil washes up along Florida panhandle

>>> van der sloot in prison.

>>> well, the president is in pensacola as we speak about to get a briefing on florida 's efforts with that oil spill just offshore, chuck.

>> earlier i spoke to florida senator george lemieux and congressman jeff miller and one word to the president, skimmers.

>> the number one message is let's get the skimmer heers. we have 32 skimmers off the coast of florida . why don't we have 320 or more? this is the number one thing now, stop the oil from leaking and prevent it from coming on shore. we do a better job.

>> where are the skimmers?

>> admiral allen tells us there's skimmers from around the world. they have offered to send them here. why every skimmer in the world isn't steaming to the gulf of mexico makes no sense. jeff miller and i are asking this for weeks. we'll ask directly today.

>> your concern about the oil, where when do you expect it to hit? when have you been told it will hit? you represent this congressional district . when will it hit the shores?

>> information now is probably by mid-morning tomorrow morning the heavier stuff out there in the first plume everybody's talking about. we have been getting waves, you know, for the last several days but i think the bigger, thicker stuff probably on shore by tomorrow.

>> bp executives are coming on capitol hill tomorrow. so a lot of you guys are going to have a chance asking them some specific questions. from the president tonight, we'll hear hints about a claims fund.

>> right.

>> how -- are you expecting -- how big of a number are you expecting bp to fund this claims fund when it gets announced looks like in the next 48 hours ?

>> it needs to be a big number. i said set up a fund. put a billion dollars in, an evergreen fund. when it is drawn down, more money put in so the states and local governments have funds to pay the claims and put out the booming. that number probably bigger, $10 billion to $20 billion.

>> what do you do, congressman, to walk this line of, you know, bp 's going to say we don't want it to be a never ending amount of money to put in and at the same time could be three or four years to find out the impact on health issues.

>> they may not want it to be never ending but it probably will be. they need to understand this is not over with in a couple of years. we have environmental issues, economical issues and health issues to track for years to come.

>> what is fair? here her at fish house . there's an argument that some restaurants may make, hey, we are being impacted by this oil spill because fewer people are coming down to the gulf coast . what's -- what in your mind is fair in going to be bp and saying, hey, we have been impacted. write us a check.

>> if you can show that last year at this time you had people renting a condo or in your hotel or coming a restaurant and this year you are down, this certain percentage, i think that is fair. that's a loss year over year. this economy was just beginning to recover and this economy had a tough time. northwest florida had ivan in 2004 . then we had the recession and now we get this third body blow in the oil spill . bp will have to make the people whole.

>> "the new york times" today, a story and an argument of louisiana to officials and florida officials where florida officials saying we have pushed back on this idea of drilling on the gulf coast . you guys didn't yet. we're getting impacted by it. is sort of -- is your views on oil drilling -- where are you on your views on oil drilling ?

>> the thing we always fought for is anything in the gulf of mexico is safe. protects not only the environment but the military mission . we have a huge military base that's out, you know, goes out into the gulf of mexico . but, you know, our position is now there will be no more drilling throughout in the gulf of mexico .

>> that is your position. are you --

>> my position is that we're going to have to continue to do drilling in the country. short to midterm. i don't want to see any new riggs permitted anywhere to make sure it never happens again.

>> we know you have got to join the president now on pensacola beach . thank you for your time.