Let me, if I may, Senator, just add.

You found indication of endocrine disruption, but not scientifically significant endocrine disruption, or not a scientifically significant signal of endocrine disruption?

I am not suggesting that we have perfect knowledge, I am not suggesting that we don't need more information and more monitoring.

To go back to bioaccumulation, once you have combined the dispersants and the oil, and now it is being taken up by the bottom level food chain species together, are you equally confident that the bioaccumulation problem is as minimal as it…

I am purposely focusing on, as I often say, the data, the data, the data.

And bioaccumulation can be a very powerful and concentrating force if the ultimate animal to which the human is exposed is at the top of the food chain.

What is going to happen to this process so that an evaluation moment by somebody in Government takes place before a chemical gets dispersed into the environment with the nominal word approved attached to it, which I think led a lot of…

The hearing of the Subcommittee will come to order.

I appreciate Senator Feingold's statement, and that will be added to the record without objection.

It is, thus, a vast and vital consequence that regulatory agencies retain their integrity.

This problem of agency capture deserves a great deal more attention than it is presently getting.

The situation at MMS, as Senator Whitehouse has pointed out, is a good example of this form of capture.

The fundamental principle is that the administrative agencies must further the policies crafted by Congress.

I would also suggest that there is a floor below which that executive policymaking discretion cannot go.

Doesn't it make sense to give them a break during the hour to cool off?

It is not unheard of in litigation, for instance, against big corporations and entities with enormous amounts of money for them to go out and basically try to lock up all the best experts.

If we are going to approach this, as the President himself has said, as a war, we need to fight it 24/7.

But it is a tribute to Senator Dodd's leadership, actually, the collaboration of everyone on this committee, including many of my Republican colleagues.