This is one of the most exciting parts of our economy. This is somewhere we can lead the world.

how much privacy are we going to give up in the name of security?

The beauty of the United States of America is that the Congress does ask hard questions.

this is also an organization based on their self-assessment gets an overall 'F' grade as it relates to IT.

Most people don't realize how large and enormous of a financial institution the Department of Education is.

It has become a monster, an absolute monster.

We are paying for it. Taxpayers are paying for it.

the department-wide information systems continue to be vulnerable to security threats.

We don't know who is in there. We don't know what they are doing.

We are talking about a trillion dollars but we are also talking about over 130 million Americans.

This is an organization, the Department of Education, that spends some $683 million--spent $683 million this year on information technology.

Today, we are here to explore the various issues surrounding the growth and prevalence of Physician-Owned Distributors, or PODs.

I think we have assumed a disproportionate responsibility for global security in the United States.

We believe these findings will say quite a bit about the lack of accountability for these types of business relationships or arrangements.

Simply put, PODs are medical device businesses in which a physician is both an investor and a distributor--essentially a salesperson--of either the devices or some of the components.

While these arrangements are not always problematic, we are seeing more and more of these physician-salespeople using the very devices they sell in the surgeries and procedures they perform.

the fraud and abuse risks, as well as (and more importantly) the patient safety concerns related to PODs, are equally applicable to physician-owned O&P laboratories.

I hope that today's hearing will be another important step in our ongoing efforts to provide appropriate oversight and enforcement on this issue.