Welcome to this hearing on the subcommittee on antitrust policy and consumer rights. Today we are pleased to have with us the chairman of the federal trade commission, joseph simons, and the assistant attorney general for the antitrust division at the department of justice, makan delrahim. Welcome to both of you. As an initial matter, as a matter of housekeeping, we have been informed we may have a block of more votes starting about an hour from now. The practical matter, we may be able to push it to an hour and a half from now, but before we hit the recess at some point we will likely have to go to recess to cast a few votes. We will have to play some of that by ear. I apologize in advance. Theres no way to predict these in advance. It does seem to be an uncanny event, with antitrust subcommittee hearings. It seems to be a good predictor, albeit an unintentional predictor of when votes are going to occur. As both of you know, ive been critical of the fact that we have two federal agen
Welcome to this hearing on the subcommittee on antitrust policy and consumer rights. Today we are pleased to have with us the chairman of the federal trade commission, joseph simons, and the assistant attorney general for the antitrust division at the department of justice, makan delrahim. Welcome to both of you. As an initial matter, as a matter of housekeeping, we have been informed we may have a block of more votes starting about an hour from now. The practical matter, we may be able to push it to an hour and a half from now, but before we hit the recess at some point we will likely have to go to recess to cast a few votes. We will have to play some of that by ear. I apologize in advance. Theres no way to predict these in advance. It does seem to be an uncanny event, with antitrust subcommittee hearings. It seems to be a good predictor, albeit an unintentional predictor of when votes are going to occur. As both of you know, ive been critical of the fact that we have two federal agen
[inaudible [inaudible conversations] the hearing will i welcome you all. [inaudible] we have a profound responsibility to do all that we can do. [inaudible] that could be trouble. All right. Can we get the rest on record as i get started here quick servicemembers put their lives and their health on the line when they put on theirand in return they have a profound responsibility to make sure that the nation is doing all that it can to keep us safe, to training casualties and provide the best possible care for those who are injured. We are holding this hearing because dod is not meeting its responsibility when it comes to traumatic brain injuries and other injuries that result from firing weapons. Injuries from the pressure thats caused by a shockwave that exceeds the normal atmospheric values have been signature with wounds of the wars in iraq and in afghanistan. But there are also injuries incurred in training home. They are invisible but they affect thousands of Service People causing