I have worked on the question of trafficking in human beings all the way back in the Bush administration.

nobody should be allowed to profiteer at the expense of cancer victims or other patients who are in dire need of these lifesaving medications.

My investigation has focused on determining where some of the companies obtain drugs in critically short supply and how much they mark up the drugs that they sell to hospitals and other health care facilities.

Chairman Issa is absolutely right. Our--the job that we do is one of trying to bring about transparency as best we can and accountability.

Given the impact that the ongoing drug shortage is having on patients and health care providers, this is exactly the type of issue this committee should be examining.

I recognize the incredible predicament that this puts our health care providers in.

I think if there is any committee that deserves to have the resources that are necessary to do its job is this committee.

I was very pleased to hear what you just said with regard to looking forward to future hearings where perhaps we could call some of those folks so we might do what you said even earlier, and that was that we would lay our political hats down at the door and attack this crisis with everything that we have, and on a bipartisan basis.

If we had them here, we could have asked what they believe are the causes of the crisis and we could have asked their opinion about specific factors that contribute to the insufficient supply of these drugs.

We just dropped today a bipartisan bill on cybersecurity.

I think all of you know well the issues that have been debated in the House.

I fully support the need to tighten our belts.

We will either have to lay off or have an across-the-board pay cut I believe of 6.4 percent.

at some point in time, we have to stop deferring maintenance and actually have to try and restore this Capitol.

we would always prefer more than one-third, but the answer to your question is, yes, we have been treated fairly.

What I would ask the committee to consider is that the Budget Committee not be penalized for its history of frugality.

I am very nervous that another round of cuts will mean that we are not able to keep or attract the kind of quality staff.

But if your objective is to defeat legislation, if that is your objective, then I understand what you are doing.