Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.), who broke down in tears during a congressional hearing last week, said Louisianans are frustrated.

The massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico shouldn't influence the nation's future decisions on offshore drilling, a Louisiana lawmaker said Sunday.

The spill and the subsequent problems of stopping mile-deep well's leak haven't diminished Republican Sen. David Vitter's support for offshore drilling, he told Candy Crowley on CNN's "State of the Union." 

"To jump from there to say there should be no domestic offshore drilling and no domestic production of oil and gas I think is a crazy leap, quite frankly," he said. 

Vitter compared giving up drilling to no longer flying after a plane crash. 

"I don't think that is rational," he said. "We need to get our hands around this event, determine exactly what went wrong and we're going to need a lot of new technology and mandates and procedures to make sure it never happens again."

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Carol Browner, the White House climate and energy adviser, said the relief well effort could have oil leaking until August.

The president said that every day the oil leak continues is "an assault on the people of the Gulf Coast."

A "top kill" procedure to stop the flow of oil has failed and British Petroleum will try another way. 

"After three full days of attempting top kill we have been unable to overcome the flow from the well so we now believe it's time to move on to the next of our options," chief operating officer Doug Suttles said Saturday evening during a press conference. 

After numerous attempts to overcome the flow and after significant review BP and industry engineers as well as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Energy Department Secretary Stephen Chu and other Obama administration officials, the decision was made to move on with the next option, Suttles said. 

Rear Adm. Mary Landry said she was "very disappointed" but made assurances that a "very aggressvie response posture" is being taken to stop the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico's waters. 

"There's no silver bullet to stop this leak," she said. 

It will be EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s fourth trip in response to the spill and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s eighth.

The flow of oil hasn't been stopped by British Petroleum's latest attempt to plug the gushing well. 

The "top kill" operation doesn't appear to be working yet and BP is planning its next move, chief operating officer Doug Suttles said Saturday. 

"I don't think the amount of oil coming out has changed," he said. "Just by watching it, we don't believe it's changed." 

BP engineers have tried several different ways to stem the flow of the well, which is a mile under the surface. Millions of gallons of oil have poured into the Gulf of Mexico's waters since the rig blew up and sank April 20, killing 11 employees. 

The next option is called the lower-marine-riser package cap, in which an underwater robot uses a saw to cut the leaking pipe and put a cap over it. 

"If we have to go to it, we can do it as quickly as possible," Suttles said. 

Cross-posted from Blog Briefing Room. 

An independent contractor hired by British Petroleum to clean up the oil spill, denied today that extra people were sent to the Louisiana coast to prepare for President Barack Obama's visit Friday. 

Although Donald Nulty of Environmental Safety and Health denied accusations that extra workers were hired to be on hand for Obama's arrival, he did say Saturday that his company decided to send 400 workers to to Grand Isle, Louisiana several days before they knew about the visit. 

"Absolutely, without a doubt, no. I had no idea about the president," Nalty told CNN today. "Whether it's the president or whatever dignitary is coming into the area, it makes no difference to us. We're there to clean up Grand Isle."

Councilman Chris Roberts of Jefferson Parish, said BP brought in additional workers to Grand Isle then sent them away after the president left town. 

The effort to plug the gusher deep in the Gulf of Mexico may be continuing, with setbacks being suffered as mud and junk are used to try to stem the flow, but the response to the spill now has nearly 27,000 Facebook fans.

The Facebook page for the Deepwater Horizon Response is being managed by social media/public affairs experts in the federal agencies that comprise the Unified Command: BP, Transocean, Coast Guard, Mineral Management Service, NOAA, EPA, Homeland Security, Interior Department, Defense Department, Fish & Wildlife Service, National Park Service, State Department, U.S. Geological Survey, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and OSHA.

The last photo galleries posted on the Facebook page are from early May: President Obama's first visit to the Gulf (before he returned on Friday), pictures of workers dragging out oil containment booms, maps of the spill's reach at the time. The page also features numerous YouTube videos of cleanup efforts and more than 2,000 links to news stories about the spill.

Fans have also been posting their personal solutions to stop the well from pouring oil into the Gulf, as well as many comments: some appreciative, some conspiratorial, many downright disgusted and frustrated.

And yes, the response team is also tweeting updates.