Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) yesterday floated a measure that would expand protections for victims of oil spills, ensuring they could seek damages from all the corporations involved.

"As we have seen from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, there are frequently multiple parties responsible for these disasters," Whitehouse said in a statement. "Some of those parties are trying to evade responsibility by arguing that current law only allows BP to be held accountable for damages caused by the spill."

BP PLC is the primary company responsible for the damages associated with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico this summer. But its junior partners and contractors could also be on the hook for some of the costs related to the spill.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Mitsui & Co. have disputed with BP over whether they should pay a portion of the cleanup costs, saying they had left the day-to-day operations of the well to BP. The British oil giant says otherwise. And Transocean Ltd., the company that owned the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, has denied it is responsible for the hundreds of millions of gallons of oil that leaked from the blown-out Macondo well.

"This legislation will make clear that, going forward, liability extends to all responsible parties," Whitehouse said. "It will also protect victims and allow for a more timely resolution for those touched by these types of disasters."

Specifically, Whitehouse's measure would modify a 1990 oil pollution law to make clear that the victims of a spill -- families of deceased workers, fishermen and hotel owners -- can recover their losses from any of the companies involved in the spill, not just the "responsible parties." It would also ensure that corporations being sued under state claims cannot automatically remove those cases to federal court.