" Today I received a message from the Senate President, a copy of which is attached along with my response. I agree fully with President Atwater that we are not ready to legislate with respect to the oil spill.

To that end, I have instructed our staff to work with the Senate staff to finalize the process and the dates for a special session no earlier than September.

Accordingly, you can expect your stay to be very short next week but in the coming weeks you can expect to be recruited for numerous legislative efforts to identify and craft solutions to problems related to the oil spill."