Florida officials said Monday they were pleased their steady lobbying helped push federal BP oil spill czar Ken Feinberg to relax a strict standard that threatened to bar many Floridians from tapping a $20 billion compensation fund.

Attorney General Bill McCollum appealed Friday to the federal government and besieged oil giant BP for help in his battle over the $20 billion compensation fund established for Gulf oil victims.

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster could lop $2.2 billion off Florida’s still-fragile economy and cost 39,000 jobs mostly in the tourism and fisheries industry, a University of Central Florida economist predicted Monday.

Hotel and restaurant industry leaders said the first signs of that decline are emerging as the encroaching oil spill diminishes what for most had been a strong Memorial Day weekend, possibly fueled by the state’s television advertising campaign.