How long would it take? Because right now, we don't have a stockpile of pandemic flu vaccine.

Part of the problem is it is a market-based technology?

But the other problem, as we have seen in past hearings, is that if you have some kind of pandemic, then the additional problem to the time it takes to grow the virus in the eggs is the egg availability.

the concept of a flu pandemic and what it could do for our country and our constituents and the world at large, it is what is keeping me up at night.

I really think it is so important the bipartisan work that we are doing on these flu issues.

Many competitive telephone providers use the physical infrastructure of incumbent carriers to provide telecom services to businesses through an arrangement called 'special access.'

Do you think that you can do anything to give more certainty to this program without statutory changes? Yes or no?

Congress cut the CO-OP loan funding program from $6 billion to $3.4 billion; is that right?

Now, the risk corridor program also ended up not coming through to the CO-OPs as we learned very painfully in Colorado in the last couple of weeks.

Given that, how is it that the CO-OPs wound up owing money to big insurance companies through the risk adjustment program?

the uncertainty in those states is really contributing to instability in the whole insurance market in those states.

I really think that the comparison of the CO-OPs to a private business is a little unfair.

Congress rescinded the remaining lending authority for CO-OPs, which essentially blocked the establishment of further CO-OPs.

I am very disappointed that the Colorado Division of Insurance was compelled to shut down the CO-OP.

But, again, if you have a CO-OP that's on the edge, that didn't solve that problem.

And if Congress had not made this program budget neutral, would it be fair to say that the payments from the risk-corridor program would have likely made a difference in keeping a lot of these CO-OPs solvent?

The risk-corridor payments and full payment of it was promised repeatedly to the CO-OPs.

What's the public interest in having that Federal backstop for these small boats?

But you know something, equally to blame is us, Congress.

I want to thank our witnesses for coming today, and I want to start with the risk-mitigation mechanisms in the law, which we commonly refer to as the three Rs, as I mentioned earlier.

From day one I have worked with the State of Colorado and the administration to help our CO-OPs succeed.

this should not be a partisan issue. We all need to figure out what's going on with these CO-OPs closing.

Now, Mr. Horn, your company acknowledged that it installed these defeat devices on a number of models dating back to 2009, correct?

I hope that Volkswagen can similarly tell us today what is happening, and I hope that they will get beyond this series of terrible decisions and do something to restore the public trust.

And those representations at that time were, in fact, incorrect and false, weren't they, sir?