The changes came in response to the April 20 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that threatens to foul U.S. shores from Louisiana to Florida. Interior Department officials say the changes will not require approval from Congress.

The Mineral Management Service, which collects roughly $13 billion annually in royalties and fees from oil and natural gas industry, has been repeatedly embroiled in scandal. During the Bush Administration, an inspector general's report found that service staffers had received financial favors from and partied with oil industry officials.

At the outset of this morning's first congressional hearing following the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, Bingaman said he intends to work with Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and others on the panel "to develop, introduce and advance the necessary and appropriate legislation through the Senate."

Representatives from three companies at the heart of an investigation into the explosion and the subsequent massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are expected to pin the blame on each other at two Senate hearings today.

Bingaman promised several hearings on the spill, including one next week featuring Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

Below are links to their prepared testimonies, as provided by the ENR committee.

• Lamar McKay: president and chairman of BP America

• Steven Newman: president and CEO of Transocean Ltd.

• Tim Probert: chief health, safety and environmental officer of Halliburton

• F.E. Beck: associate professor at Texas A&M University

• Bud Danenberger: former chief of the Offshore Regulatory Program at the Minerals Management Service

2) Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., will call for stricter restrictions on the oil industry at today's Environment and Public Works hearing on the spill (Environment & Energy Daily -- subscription).

3) The White House is expected to formally request lifting the caps on the Oil Spill Liability Act today (Politico).

4) Lawmakers are scrutinizing the relationship between the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service and the oil companies it regulates (Bloomberg News). Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will make a major announcement this afternoon on "toughening" offshore oil and natural gas operations (release).

5) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., signaled that he might move forward with a "smaller" energy-only bill in lieu of a comprehensive climate and energy package (Bloomberg News).

Rare earth materials, which comprise 17 metallic elements, are critical to the production of clean-energy technologies, specifically hybrid cars that require rare earth magnets, along with wind turbines, energy-efficient light bulbs and solar panels, whose reliability without the precious materials would be severely reduced.

Most troublesome is China's decision in the last three years to reduce exports and increase export taxes on all rare earth materials by 15-25 percent due to its own surge in consumption. A Government Accountability Office report released in April warned that the U.S. is vulnerable and incapable of supplying rare earths on its own.

BP -- which operated the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded April 20 about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast -- and Transocean, the rig's owner, will largely point fingers at each other Tuesday morning before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and Tuesday afternoon before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, according to their prepared testimony.

BP America's chairman and president Lamar McKay will tell the panels that the company is investigating why the rig's blowout preventer -- a common 450-ton piece of equipment that sits on top of a wellhead during drilling operations and contains valves that can be closed remotely -- did not work. While McKay said the company is looking at its own actions, the blowout preventers "are intended to ... be fail-safe; sadly and for reasons we do not yet understand, in this case, they were not. Transocean's blowout preventer failed to operate."

And Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, I/D-Conn., are set to release on Wednesday their long-awaited and highly guarded climate and energy strategy without their Republican partner. But a host of industry and business groups key to the bill's success are still waiting for details necessary to win their backing. For more, read today's CongressDailyAM (subscription) story.

Officials from BP -- which leased the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded off the Louisiana coast from Transocean Ltd. -- will have to answer their congressional critics regarding the timeliness and methods for responding to the spill and precautions taken.

2) The gulf oil spill has cost BP $350 million so far (Reuters).

3) Officials from BP, Transocean and Halliburton will testify on the Hill in three hearings this week (CongressDailyAM -- subscription).

4) The oil spill has divided two coastal state Democrats -- Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Bill Nelson of Florida (The Hill).

5) Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, I/D-Conn., are expected to release their climate and energy legislation on Wednesday without Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Industry groups are holding off on taking a position until more details come out (CongressDailyAM -- subscription). White House top energy and climate adviser Carol Browner says the oil spill could rally support for the bill (Bloomberg News).

Next Tuesday, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will convene to review the spill in the context of the Obama administration's proposed expansion of offshore drilling. Witnesses will include representatives of the companies involved in the leasing and operation of the ruptured well, as well as a former official at the Minerals Management Service, an agency that took some blowback today for reportedly ceding some of its regulatory authority to oil companies. Later that afternoon, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hear testimony from a battery of experts.

On Wednesday, a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will inquire into the spill, followed two weeks later by a full committee hearing of the House Natural Resources Committee. The witnesses for both hearings have yet to be announced.

Complete details after the jump.

Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, I/D-Conn., announced today they will roll out their climate and energy plan on Wednesday without their lone Republican partner and co-author, Sen. Lindsey Graham, S.C.

"Over the last three weeks, we all understand Lindsey has been busy with the immigration issue and we understand his feelings on that issue, but during this period we've continued working, moving forward, and talking in great detail with our Senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and with the environmental and business communities," Kerry and Lieberman said in a joint statement, referencing Graham's exit from the talks due to a rift with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid about whether to bring up immigration reform for debate this year.

Kerry and Lieberman credited Graham for "a significant contribution to construct balanced legislation that will make our country energy independent, create jobs and curb pollution." They added that Graham "has been our partner in building a broad-based coalition of support for legislation that can pass the Senate this year."

Graham, though, has said the timing is not yet right for pushing a climate and energy plan, emphasizing not just the immigration fight with Reid but also the continuing investigation and efforts to address the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

2) BP is lowering a 98-ton container to the sea floor in order to capture oil gushing from a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico. Company officials told reporters that they were embarking on an experimental procedure (New York Times).

3) The Minerals Management Service, the federal agency responsible for overseeing offshore drilling, has ceded responsibilities to the oil industry over the course of the last decade, according to a Wall Street Journal examination.

4) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Thursday that even increasing the liability cap for offshore drilling disasters to $10 billion (from $75 million) might not cover BP's liability in the gulf (The Hill).

5) Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Thursday that climate and energy legislation faces a significant setback from the current catastrophe (CongressDailyAM -- subscription).

That's one of the questions asked in the latest National Journal Political Insiders Poll and NationalJournal.com Bloggers Poll. See below for the results. Click here to read more analysis on the Insiders Poll and here for analysis on the Bloggers Poll.

• Democratic Insiders:
Yes: 26
No: 70 percent

• Left-leaning bloggers:
Yes: 5.6 percent
No: 94.4 percent

• Republican Insiders:
Yes: 57 percent
No: 38 percent

• Right-leaning bloggers:
Yes: 75 percent
No: 25 percent

"I think it has a chance over time," Graham said of a plan he has coauthored with Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, I/D-Conn. "But you got to get 60 votes, and with the gulf on fire it's probably not the time."

Drilling opponents have seized on the ever-growing spill resulting from the April 20 explosion of the BP-run Deepwater Horizon oil rig. At least one critic -- Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. -- has promised to filibuster a bill that includes President Obama's recent blueprint for expanding drilling along the East Coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and waters off Alaska.

"At the end of the day you're bringing this bill out in an environment where opposition to oil exploration, gas exploration is intensified," Graham said. "So... what was a heavy lift has become almost impossible until we resolve these issues."

That includes a continuing disagreement with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid over Democratic plans to bring up immigration reform for debate this year.

"Total employment during the next few decades would be slightly lower than would be the case in the absence of such policies," the report says, adding that losses in energy-intensive industries like oil, coal and manufacturing would be greater than gains in other sectors, "thereby raising the overall unemployment rate."

"Eventually, however, most workers who lost jobs would find new ones," the report says. It predicts that jobs in other types of energy production, including nuclear and renewables, would increase but that the increases in these sectors would not be as "readily observable" as the likely decreases in the energy-intensive industries.

The CBO based its analysis on three studies, by Resources For The Future, the Brookings Institution and CRA International, and based its estimates mainly on the cap-and-trade bill passed out of the House last year.

Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, I/D-Conn., are planning to roll out the plan even if Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., does not come back into the fold. "He'll be supportive but not with us," Lieberman said today. "I prefer it the other way, but we've got enough support that we want to get it started."

Lieberman said that next week is possible for a launch, and he and Kerry were expected to sit down later today to discuss that option. "We haven't locked it in yet," Kerry said. "But we're looking at trying to roll it out as soon as we can. We think it's reasonable."

Kerry declined to confirm that he and Lieberman would do so without Graham."We still have immigration issues," he said.