Nelson suggests liability cap could be attached to tax extenders bill

A proposal to raise the liability cap for oil spills to $10 billion could be attached to a tax extenders bill, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson (D) said Wednesday. 

"We started talking about it today as putting it as a part of the very necessary tax extenders bill that we're going to pass to keep some of those tax cuts in place for middle-income people," Nelson said today during an MSNBC interview. 

"That's a must-pass bill. This fits within the jurisdiction of the subject matter of the bill, so I think we're going to try to put it on there."

Nelson said he specifically asked British Petroleum executives on Tuesday if they are planning to pay for all costs of the massive oil spill beyond clean up and containment and they said "we'll work on that."

"They admitted that they will exceed the existing law cap," Nelson said. 

Lawmakers are pressing to raise the damages liability cap from $75 million to $10 billion and forcing BP to pay for the economic damages along the gulf coast. The White House supports the idea of raising the cap, although they don't know by how much. Several spokesmen have said the oil company will be held accountable for all costs associated with spill. 

Several Democrats introduced legislation on Monday to raise the cap and have said it has growing bipartisan support.