We appreciate Senator Snowe's strong support for the program.

Senator Snowe as well is very interested and concerned with having the women's contracting program up and in place, and it is a high priority for her.

Just following up on that point, we have done a lot of work with State and local governments, and with our private sector partners to improve the response because obviously if you are a terrorist and you think a community is unable to…

I just again want to thank our witnesses for all of their work--they have all been working on it for quite some time--and to assure you of our determination to get the kinds of reforms that we all believe are needed signed into law.

It is startling to me that you could present the regulator with the report showing such serious problems and no action was taken, but that is what happened.

I suspect that the cultural differences are also reflected in the regulators.

It seems to me that when you went to the CDC a year ago and showed such glaring deficiencies in just basic security measures, that the agency should have acted immediately.

As Senator Collins said, our adversaries are not sitting in the stands waiting to see what we do.

Do you have a sense of whether this is an issue in the private sector, and if not, do you think the VA can learn something from the private sector as it relates to monitoring their inventorying?

I believe VHA gets effective pricing, probably about 26 percent better on pharmaceuticals than other Federal customers.

Do you believe that the national CMOP remains the preferred model for acquiring pharmaceutical supplies and services?

Thank you again for taking the time to answer these questions. The Committee looks forward to receiving your answers by November 12, 2009.

Thank you for the testimony of Belinda J. Finn, Assistant Inspector General for Audits and Investigations at the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Subcommittee on Health Oversight Hearing on 'Is the VA Meeting…

Thank you very much, Mr. Perriello, and also for your leadership on veterans issues. We really appreciate your tenacity in making sure we take care of our veterans.

I find that astonishing since this is a signature wound of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I have heard complaints about FDA's progress for approving drugs and other issues that deal with conflicts of interest.

Clinical decisions need to predominate throughout the VA.

We are a democracy. This should be done out in the sunshine.