"Americans don't want band-aid solutions to this crisis. They want comprehensive action. Now is not the time for delays, now is the time for leaders in the Senate to act," resort owner Kevin Overton, of Escambia, Florida, told a press conference.

Hailing from Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama, 94 people affected by the massive oil slick gushing from a sunken BP oil rig came to lobby lawmakers to vote for the bill Senators John Kerry (Democrat) and Joe Lieberman (independent) presented last month.

The bill is aimed at reducing US dependence on fossil fuel and includes a secondary market for pollution rights nicknamed "cap and trade." It is backed by President Barack Obama but opposed by opposition Republicans.

"We need to establish other sources of energy and stop being a hostage to the oil companies and foreign oil," said Louisiana Oysterman Association president Byron Encalade.

About 78,000square miles (200,000 square kilometers) or approximately one-third of Gulf of Mexico federal waters known as the Exclusive Economic Zone have been closed to fishing as a result of the spill.

Posing beside 20 big jars of oil-polluted seawater, the visitors to Congress made it clear they are concerned about the environment, the regional economy and above all the health of the local populations.

"They spread chemical dispersants. Every time we ask the question, 'Does it harm today? (they answer) 'We don't know.' 'Will it harm tomorrow?' 'We don't know,'" said Encalade.

Several people from Louisiana spoke of a little-known fact about their oil-rich region.

"We have already one of the highest cancer rates in the country although its a big secret. We are very tired," said Beverly Wright, executive director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University, in New Orleans.

The health effects of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill on the local population and the people directly involved in the recovery effort were also the focus of a separate hearing by the Energy and Commerce Committee of the House of Representatives.

State health authorities "are anticipating that the longer-term stressors and economic consequences of this disaster could lead to an increase in depression, substance use and abuse, family violence, high risk behavior, suicide," Department of Health and Human Services deputy assistant secretary Lisa Kaplowitz told lawmakers.

She recalled that similar events followed the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.

In Louisiana, more than 100 people involved in the recovery effort have fallen ill from breathing the toxic fumes from the oil spill since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded April 20 and sank two days later.

Doctor Aubrey Keith Miller, senior medical advisor to the National Institutes of Health, told the committee the oil nearest the source of the spill "can cause acute toxicity as well as longer-term health effects such as cancer, birth defects and neurological effects."

Even after air and water break down some of the volatile organic compounds in the slick, he added, "weathered oil still contains other hazardous chemicals such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals such as nickel and lead."

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