Your concern is not comforting, I can tell you that. Action is what we are trying to get here.

How do we justify a cut in the budget proposal of 20 percent for the next budget?

I think we would be fooling ourselves to say that everything out there is with zero risk.

I have 10 grandchildren and I want them to be healthy and well.

Well, I hate to answer that question, but convenience has overtaken us.

Every day, all Americans across the Country rely on exactly the same thing, clean and safe water.

If we take something like MTBE, MTBE was said to cause cancer in animals many years ago.

On the process. How about the product?

Do we dismiss risk altogether because the fact that these quantities are trace amounts?

Let me ask you this, how about a fetus, embryonic stage. Is there more risk there in the development of a child?

This is a hearing on Pharmaceuticals in the Nation's Water: Assessing Potential Risks and Actions, and we are pleased to bring the Committee to order.

Do you believe that giving it a good hefty 20 percent cut is going to lead to its self-funding?

So in your view, the fact that right now at this point in time, with the work that your department has, that a 20 percent cut in resource doesn't really mean a heck of a lot.

Well, I don't want to make judgments on what you intended, Dr. Goldhammer, but is there any concern by the industry at all about these discharges into the water?

That is why so many people were concerned about a news article that ran in March.

First, I want to say thanks to my colleague, the Chairperson of the Committee for her diligence in making sure that we are in constant activity reviewing our responsibilities and assessing what we can do to improve the environmental…

a recent environmental working group study showed that there are over 140 contaminants in our water supply that are unregulated and that EPA has not set safety standards for.

Yes, but if these materials can be identified as cancer-causing in some instances, how do you determine what the pace of review should be?