Susan Collins

This hospice house provides a comfortable homelike setting for hospice patients and their family in which they can receive advanced patient-centered care.

Thank you very much. First, Senator Whitehouse, let me join you in commending our chairman for his leadership.

I just wish we had more hospice houses throughout the State of Maine and throughout this country.

I want to thank you, Senator Whitehouse, for your interest in this hearing to look at best-practice models of hospice and palliative care for patients with advanced serious illnesses and complex care needs.

How can we tell one segment of Americans that they are not entitled to that security because of whom they love?

All Americans deserve a fair opportunity to pursue the American dream.

Moreover, it's the moral thing to do, the right thing to do, and the equitable thing to do.

The right to work is a fundamental one.

It is a commonsense solution, consistent with existing Federal civil rights laws.

I urge you to try to put that aside because if there is a problem, if the Washington Post story today is correct, you cannot be confident that this has not happened before and that it will not happen again.

Doesn't that suggest a broader problem?

So was there a sweep done of the hotel rooms to see whether the women involved had planted any electronic surveillance equipment?

From my perspective, when you combine the facts of this case...that just spells a broader problem with culture in the agency.

Have you now been able to definitively conclude that the women were not associated with foreign agents, that they did not work for drug cartels, that they were not involved in human trafficking, that they were not working for FARC, for…

We all have a role to fully investigate this as a result, and we all have a role to be sure that this kind of risky and unprofessional behavior does not occur again.

That fact made your investigation easier in terms of tracking down the women, but it also seems to reinforce the claim that this kind of conduct has been tolerated in the past.

I give you credit for issuing that to make it crystal clear.

Let me begin my remarks today by stating my strong belief that the vast majority of the men and women of the U.S.

If I finally become successful in convincing you that there is a broader problem here with culture or with unacceptable behavior being condoned...

It is somewhat ironic that we can be relieved that the women for the most part were simply prostitutes.

I am so concerned about what happened and so deeply troubled by the incident that is the subject of this hearing today.

I think it is critical that the IG do a completely independent investigation, not just a review of the agency's investigation.

I just think that between the alcohol--and, I do not know, the environment--these individuals did some really dumb things.

Senator Collins and I sent you a letter asking that you conduct additional investigations into conference and travel expenses at GSA.

And, it is an area where there has been failure after failure after failure.