The federal government and BP PLC soon will start a four-day process to permanently plug the failed well in the Gulf of Mexico.

Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the federal government's point man on the response effort, ordered BP on Saturday to move forward with tests crucial to starting the "bottom kill," which involves drilling a relief well into the failed wellbore near the reservoir to fill it with cement and plug it for good.

"To make everything clear up front, we have advised BP -- and I will be issuing a directive -- that will tell them to proceed with the relief well in the bottom kill," Allen said Saturday. Prior to that order, Allen directed BP to plan for pressure relief during the bottom kill and to continue ambient pressure tests to assess the stability of the well.

"I want BP to tell us their assessment of the stability of the well before and after the removal of the [blowout preventer] package and before and after the conditions to be created for the bottom kill," Allen said. "Once we understand all of that and we make a decision to move forward, I will issue an order for them to actually intercept the well, but that will be a separate order."

Once Allen gives BP the OK to move forward with the bottom kill, it will take the oil giant four days to finish work on the relief well and intercept the failed well. The relief well's drill bit is currently poised 3.5 horizontal feet and 50 feet above the intersection point.

Some had speculated last week that BP may not need to move forward with the bottom kill because the "static kill" was successful in sealing the well from the top. But Allen said Saturday that the bottom kill will move forward.

"We will kill the well, the relief well will be executed and the bottom kill will be executed," Allen said. "It's just a matter of finishing up tests so we understand the conditions under which we should move forward and precautions that may be taken to mitigate risk."

He said the procedure poses a risk of releasing the 42,000 gallons of oil trapped in the well's casing, but he said BP would use chemicals to disperse it or would attempt to capture it.

House panel returns Thursday to continue spill probe

A House Energy and Commerce panel returns to Washington this week to continue its probe into the Gulf spill.

The Energy and Environment Subcommittee meets Thursday for a hearing that will examine what happened to the billions of gallons of spilled oil and probe the safety of seafood from oily Gulf waters.

A committee aide said that even though Congress is in recess, it shouldn't take a break from examining the spill and its impacts.

Subcommittee Chairman Ed Markey (D-Mass.) has been vocal in his concerns about the effects of the spill on Gulf ecosystems and communities. Last week, he urged BP to own up to the flow-rate figures estimated by federal scientists.

The federal government earlier this month estimated that some 175 million gallons of crude has sullied Gulf waters this summer, but BP has remained quiet on the issue. Markey said acceptance of the government's estimate is crucial for damage claims to move forward.

"Oil may have stopped flowing from the well, but the suffering in the region continues," Markey wrote in a letter to BP America President Lamar McKay. "Low-balling or litigating the flow-rate estimate would be just one more insult to the people of the Gulf."

The hearing also will delve into the safety of Gulf seafood as the Obama administration has lifted fishing bans over several swaths of the Gulf and shrimping season opens today along the Gulf for the first time since the spill.

Federal scientists say seafood from the waters that have been reopened to fishing is safe, but local fishermen and the public have remained skeptical. Concerns have also mounted over the possibility of dispersant contamination in Gulf seafood.

The Food and Drug Administration says dispersants used to break up the oil slick are not likely to bioaccumulate in seafood species and pose little public health risk through human consumption. But the federal agency isn't planning to monitor for long-term evidence of biological impacts on seafood species, according to a letter sent to Markey and released last week.

"FDA does not presently monitor for Corexit dispersant chemicals in the tissue of seafood because of their low bioconcentration potential, and the agency does not have plans for long-term studies of Corexit dispersant constituents in seafood," the letter says.

The hearing will be at 10 a.m. Thursday in 2123 Rayburn.

Swiss agency stalls Transocean's dividend payout

Transocean Ltd., the Swiss company that owned the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, said Friday that a Swiss commercial-registry office has blocked its effort to pay out the first of its planned $1 billion in dividend payments.

The Commercial Register of the Canton of Zug rejected the rig operator's registration, citing pending lawsuits involving the sunken Deepwater Horizon rig.

The dividend has drawn criticism from U.S. lawmakers worried that shareholder payments could enhance the company's protection from lawsuits and make it harder for those affected by the spill to file claims. About two dozen senators in June asked Transocean to postpone the payout until the company's liability in the accident had been determined. Transocean has said a payment will not affect its legal obligations to the accident.

Obamas jaunt to Fla. to boost tourism

The first family spent part of the weekend on the Florida Panhandle in an attempt to boost tourism in the struggling region.

The president, first lady Michelle Obama and 9-year-old Sasha Obama took a boat ride through Florida's St. Andrews Bay to watch porpoises and stopped for ice cream at Panama City Beach before heading back to Washington yesterday afternoon.

Florida's once-booming tourism industry has struggled as a result of the spill, with many tourists staying home or making alternate plans on fears that the oil has sullied all the beaches.

The trip was Obama's fifth to the region since the April 20 accident. While the president and first lady had both made repeated plugs for the region's tourism industry, they had been criticized for not following their own advice to travel there.

Locals were delighted by President Obama and Sasha's swim Saturday, a move they say could signal to other would-be Gulf vacationers that the water and beaches are fine. The White House said the Obamas swam in St. Andrews Bay, not the Gulf.