“Thank you Chairman Stupak. Today we hold our third and very critical hearing in this Subcommittee’s ongoing investigation of the tragic Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill, which continues to wreak economic and environmental havoc on our Gulf Coast. This hearing provides the Subcommittee an important opportunity to question directly the man who ultimately leads BP, Mr. Tony Hayward, the company’s Chief Executive Officer. And BP’s role has been central to the causes of the incident and the response. Over the course of our inquiry to date, Committee investigators working in a bi-partisan fashion have conducted numerous interviews and briefings, and reviewed tens of thousands of pages of documents. Read more »

Mr. Chairman, I must admit, I have to wonder what exactly any of us expect to achieve with this hearing. I know that what my constituents and the people I’ve talked to are concerned about is stopping the flow of oil that continues to leak into the Gulf, even today. But no one sitting behind the dais or sitting at the witness table believes today’s hearing will result in the solution to stemming the flow of oil into Louisiana’s, Mississippi’s, Alabama’s, and Florida’s coastlines. Read more »

I want to thank Chairmen Waxman and Stupak as well as Ranking Members Barton and Walden. You worked with me to ensure the oversight jurisdiction of this committee in this matter. Chairman Waxman, I know transparency is very important to you. I hope we can pass this resolution on a bipartisan basis. As you know, I wrote to the White House on September 30th (I ask unanimous… Read more »

I find it appropriate that our panel of witnesses consists of two professors and two professors alone because the conversation about the challenge of creating jobs is an academic one, where you must determine for yourself which of the two sectors – public or private -- is the appropriate vehicle for creating jobs. As a Republican, I fundamentally believe that it is not appropriate for… Read more »

Thank you Mr. Chairman. I think we need to start with a simple question. What is the purpose of this hearing? If it is to answer the question posed in the title “ Are prescription drug prices rising too fast?” then I have two concerns. The first is that we have not waited on a report that was requested by Chairman Waxman from the GAO on this very question. We cannot debate… Read more »

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I do appreciate you holding this hearing. The Chairman of the full committee is looking forward to hearing the testimony of administrator Kerry Weems and his ideas as well; unfortunately we will have to wait until the end of this hearing to hear that testimony. Once again we are in the awkward position of trying to hold up the head of a large federal agency… Read more »

Thank you Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the Chairman of the full Committee Mr. Dingell for his draft of the FDA Globalization legislation. I do wish that there could have been more input from the minority side. I understand I am relatively new but it seems like if we could be present while your were drafting the draft it would be easier to get to a true bipartisan compromise. But never… Read more »

H.R. 1343, the Health Centers Renewal Act of 2007, would reauthorize the funding for a program that has been successful at meeting the health care access needs of many underserved populations. For many years, North Texans tried to navigate the complexities of the Federally Qualified Health Center program requirements and have just recently, after many years, secured one of these valuable… Read more »

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and I thank the Chairman of the full committee who is exactly right, this will be recorded as a bright spot in the work of this committee this year. I want to thank Ranking Member Stearns for bringing the bill to this committee. I am a cosponsor of the bill, and I would like to commend the leadership of this committee for the true bipartisan undertaking of H.R.… Read more »

Thank you Mr. Chairman, I thank you and Ranking Member Stearns. I commend you both for the hearing today and for the bipartisan nature of the way our subcommittee has worked on this legislation that is before us today. Mr. Chairman, you’ve heard me say it before, this Committee has some of the brightest minds, some of the greatest amount of intellectual firepower in the United States… Read more »