President Barack Obama won a defense of his handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill from one GOP congressman on Thursday.

Rep. Ron Paul, the libertarian Republican lawmaker from Texas, said that people were expecting too much from the president in his ability to react to the ongoing spill into the Gulf.

"I'm a pretty big critic of the president," Paul said during an appearance on "Imus in the Morning" on the Fox Business Network, "but I just don't see the justification for coming down hard on the president."

White House energy and climate adviser Carol Browner is emphasizing that federal officials are calling the shots in BP’s effort to contain the Gulf of Mexico oil gusher.

“It is important, I think, for people to understand that BP cannot do anything without the administration’s agreement, and so if an idea is put forward that our brain trust, our scientists, are not comfortable with, they are told that. They do not proceed,” she told National Public Radio.

“We are not partners,” she added in the interview, broadcast Thursday morning, “because at the end of the day, we get to decide what happens.”

Oil companies and environmentalists scrambling to shape post-spill policy

The New York Times explores lobbying efforts by both sides on the question of drilling restrictions and rules.

“Environmentalists and their supporters in Congress, hoping to seize the political momentum, are working to push through measures to extend bans on new offshore drilling, strengthen safety and environmental safeguards and raise to $10 billion or more the cap on civil liability for an oil producer in a spill,” the Times reports.

Over on our main site, my colleagues Puneet Kollipara and Kevin Bogardus look at BP and other oil companies picking up the tab for travel by federal officials, largely under the Bush administration.

They report:

A review by The Hill of gift reports on file at the Office of Government Ethics shows oil and gas companies picked up the tab for tours by federal officials of offshore oil rigs in the Gulf along with oil facilities in Alaska.

Companies and industry trade groups took care of food and lodging for officials and also paid for them to attend business conferences. The records cover gift reports filed by employees at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Interior Department and the Homeland Security Department, which all have dealings with oil and gas companies.

The bulk of the trips occurred under President George W. Bush’s administration. Only two industry-funded trips took place during the first nine months of President Barack Obama’s administration.

The Obama administration on Wednesday stepped up efforts to show that it is toughening offshore drilling oversight by announcing that it will require oil and gas companies to submit more information about their projects before proceeding.

The administration made the announcement through Bob Abbey, the newly installed head of the beleaguered Minerals Management Service, as it seeks to highlight reforms in the wake of the BP oil spill.

Among the new requirements: exploration and development plans previously approved using a waiver from full environmental studies — called a “categorical exclusion" — must now resubmit their plans.

Vice President Joe Biden said oil giant BP has “done the best they could” to contain the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Biden — in an appearance on the “Charlie Rose” show to be broadcast Wednesday night — also said that he’s in “constant” contact with President Barack Obama about the disaster.

“When I sit down and talk to him [Obama] about this, which is constant ... he talks with such empathy about this is not just merely an economic catastrophe. This is potentially going to ruin a way of life. This is a unique bayou culture that's down there,” Biden said.

Florida Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) is urging President Barack Obama to deploy more military resources in the effort to combat the worsening Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Nelson, in a letter to Obama Tuesday, cites the weekend failure of BP’s “top kill” to cap its gushing well and the prospect of the spreading oil harming Florida’s estuaries and beaches.

BP is attempting to fit another containment dome over the leak, but the well may not be cut off until August when relief wells are completed.

“While the Coast Guard, under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the National Guard both are involved, it is my belief that the broader assets and command and control capability of the Department of Defense could better translate your directives into prompt, effective action,” the letter states.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has abruptly "changed the appetite" for oil drilling in the waters that surround his state.

Crist told The Hill this week that he has toured the oil spill "eight or nine times," and signed several state-of-emergency declarations in response to the spill. He toured the spill again with President Barack Obama on Friday, and said the close-up views have convinced him not to support any oil drilling in the Gulf.

“For anybody, regardless of what your party is, if this doesn’t give you pause, nothing would,” he said. “I think it’s really changed the appetite, if you will, as it relates to oil drilling certainly in the Gulf of Mexico. The concern after going out to Louisiana the other day and seeing the oil on the shore, I mean, it's just devastating to see. I know that energy independence is incredibly important to all of us, but I think we have to evaluate how we do it, and try to have a greater focus on renewable [energy] and greener types of technology — you know, solar, wind, nuclear, natural gas — the kinds of things that would be less impactful as it relates to, you know, a potentially devastating effect on our environment."