BP Claims Process Will Be Streamlined

By Eileen Fleming

New Orleans, La. – Feinberg says elected officials, residents and businesspeople have been telling him for weeks that payments are too small and taking too long. He says a new system will group industries affected by the oil spill, such as fishing and tourism businesses. Each claim will still be individually evaluated. But he says that the cluster system will make it easier to compare claims for payments. Feinberg is in charge of the $20 billion-dollar fund the White House negotiated from BP. The Gulf Coast Claims Facility says it has paid out over $400 million dollars on 30,000 claims in five weeks. Feinberg says the new system will have uniform standards to decide how much a person or business should receive.
For NPR News, I'm Eileen Fleming in New Orleans.