Jon L. Christensen: “I want to begin by first thanking the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Turner) for his leadership on the select committee and…”

“I want to begin by first thanking the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Turner) for his leadership on the select committee and for this opportunity to draw attention to the critical issues of homeland security. And I also want to take the opportunity to thank as well the minority leader, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), for the honor of having me serve on this important committee. I was placed here, I think, especially because I am a physician. The issue of bioterrorism is central to the work we are charged with and it is a charge we take very seriously. It is especially so for those of us who have long been concerned about the poor state of the public health infrastructure in many of our communities across the Nation, both urban and rural, as well as in our offshore areas. The ranking member, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Turner) has begun working to ensure we will have the hearings, briefings, and roundtable discussions to learn as much as we can about the public health and other needs of our communities so we will be better positioned to respond to them. We had our first hearing which was on Project Bioshield last week.”