Claire McCaskill

I want to know if anybody has been held accountable.

I guarantee you, if you plot a graph of how much OxyContin is being prescribed, if you all had that number right now, I think it would scare the bejesus out of you.

Dr. Rice, Admiral Hunter, General Schoomaker, Admiral Robinson, General Green, and Admiral Jeffries, how are these numbers tracked?

This has really become a drug of choice that is a huge problem in this Nation.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

It seems to me that his injury has been as traumatic as any battlefield injury, and it doesn't seem fair to me that he's denied that benefit because it's an adverse reaction to a vaccine that he had to take for deployment, as opposed to an…

what is your interpretation of whether Lance Corporal Lopez qualifies for TSGLI given the nature of his injuries from the DOD-administered vaccine, which caused him permanent and lifelong disability?

I will make a bold prediction. DynCorp will be extended again and DynCorp will be there doing this until a decision is made as to what extent our level is going to change in terms of our commitment in Afghanistan sometime next year.

The new contract will be month-to-month, and should cost less unless we run into some unknowns.

At this point, I would recommend that the contract not be extended, and that we rely on the experience and expertise of GSA professionals.

So if they are in completely the wrong plan and they could save 50 percent by switching a plan, up to 45 percent of that money they could save is coming directly out of the U.S. Treasury.

If we cannot require them to report fraud, we might as well give them a gun and tell them to hold up the bank.

Twenty-four of the 86 Medicare D sponsors, in 2008, did not report one incident of fraud.

So the law is saying it is OK if we placed Mrs. Jones in the plan that is going to make her plan twice as expensive because you are required to do it randomly?

Well, what I am saying is that they could be reassigned to a plan that is going to cost the U.S. Government more than it should because that particular plan has not negotiated a good deal with a given drug company that particular recipient…

I was particularly interested in your comments about prescription drugs and the abuse of prescription drugs.

That is depressing to me that we would have to--that is something that would take a law to require people that we are giving money to, to tell us if they think that there is fraud going on.

I think there are fine cars this company has built, and our, obviously, hardworking people in America that are selling them and buying them.

It seems to me that the lawyers of this country, in many instances, are doing the work that the regulatory agencies refuse to do.

I think the transparency part's important, and I know that economic considerations go into the secrecy culture.

I think you are going to be disappointed unless you make it illegal.

There is not a bigger purchaser in the world than the U.S. Federal Government. That is not something I am bragging about.

I want to open this hearing and begin by thanking the incredibly important witnesses we have today.

It is fascinating to me that government does not have to make it work at the bottom line.

I guess I am curious, why do we have to get it in writing from them? Why don't we just say they have to?