Then how do you say there is great proven value to the program when you have no way of assessing how many people were motivated by the program to do something and may have done it the same way anyway?

Are you saying that basically the benefits here may not justify the cost of doing that kind of a survey?

Can you check with the IRS and ask them what they know about this deduction?

And that raises the equity issue, it seems to me, because if there are a lot of people who are getting their transportation paid for by the government, who would have paid for that mass transit from their own pay, where you have other…

Extrapolate that. If that were true for all of the agencies here and for all of the employees here.

At this point if we are going to be spending $1 billion to help a fairly small percentage of Federal employees switch from single occupancy vehicle to mass transit, and in any event a fairly small percentage of Federal employees period…

That is one of the intriguing aspects of this matter, it seems to me, is it is kind of hard to state with any confidence as to how many people would be riding Metro or some other form of mass transit who otherwise would not be.

The Subcommittee this afternoon looks at the Federal Transit Benefit Program.

I think that you made reference, Mr. Gimble, to an audit by the Department of Defense Inspector General back in 2003 which said that 'controls over the transit subsidies program within the Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Defense Logistics…

That has not yet been done?

That seems to me to be one of the real problems with this program, it is hard to identify what percentage of employees were moved or attracted or given an incentive to leave either a single occupant vehicle or a multiple occupant vehicle…

This Transit Benefit Program exists in the private sector, as well; correct?

But it is not income to the employee?

If there is anything close to a 25 percent rate of abuse, ... you are talking about perhaps $150 million to $200 million of waste in 2008.

We are talking here about a significant amount of money.

We ought to forget the program.

There is no use having a program where anywhere close to 25 percent is abuse.

That would be great. Thank you.

Simply stated, our ground forces are stretched thin and equipment is wearing out faster than planned and is not being replaced in a timely manner.

The performance of newly minted option arm loans is causing us problems.

Triage means you were not providing adequate resources where they were needed.

A new process without the right support would be overwhelming.

They will be a great help but they will not start until August, right?

U.S. participants will not engage in combat in the Philippines, without prejudice, of course, to their right of self-defense.

Without those political compromises, there's not going to be an end to the conflict.