I was really gratified to see, recently, just over the past month or so, after we, in our country, began discussing this issue a little more openly, that China has been willing to share some data on the construction in Yunnan.

In response to a question from Senator Webb, Dr. Birnbaum discussed the value of the dose-response findings in the Air Force Health Study...

I have pretty extensive experience with this issue, beginning as a Marine rifle platoon and company commander in one of the more war-torn areas of Vietnam.

I take your point. I am on a very short period of time here.

In response to a question from Senator Webb with respect to the extent to which common risk factors for developing IHD may have attributed to the elevated risk observed in the studies reviewed by the IOM Update 2008...

it is profoundly disturbing in its implications that--on a lot of different levels--environmentally, politically, culturally, strategically--in terms of this region, that we are not paying enough attention to this issue.

We can decline to invest in projects that are clearly harmful to environmental concerns.

China's dam cascade in Yunnan will have different impacts, as opposed to those of the Lower Mekong dams.

Well, Secretary Shinseki made a comment toward the end of his testimony; he had actually made a similar comment when I met with him.

Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask a couple questions. First of all, thank all of you for the details that you provided in your written statements and the follow-on questions.

We will continue to see if we can't help raise the awareness of this issue.

Hopefully we can move forward to some sort of a structure in which we can start having an impact on these issues.