It is normal for cdc to do investigative work on its own before it would refer a matter to us and that actually helps us because the evidence is more developed when he receive it. So you think 60 days is reasonable before youre notified to do your investigation . Yes. Okay. And as a part of that theyre doing their investigations and so forth. But dont you think its kind of interesting that you got notified yesterday . Do you think that our hearing might have sped that time up a little bit . I have no information about that. But when you filed your testimony, you said to date oig has not received a referral for any more recent potential violations involving dugway which was in reference to the 2008 and 2010 incidents. Thats right. We submitted the testimony on friday. At that time we had not received it. I would say my opinion is that yor sight by this committee is a very effective way at spurring attention to this matter within the government. Just wish we didnt have to do it so often.
And i am proud of you. I know you are currently residing in florida but you are a true puerto rican. I know you are fighting for equality, and that is the solution. The democratic thing to do the right thing to do economically and financially for puerto rico insofar as the immediate crisis is concerned. Congress could give puerto rico a tool that is not available in puerto rico, and that is chapter nine of the bankruptcy code. It allows companies to reorganize themselves under the protection of the bankruptcy court, so that they can meet their payment obligations. It allows them to restructure in an organized and legal way. That is why i am fighting for that in congress. But the permanent solution would be to allow puerto rico to join the union. Pay federal taxes. But at the same time, get the same benefits from the federal government. Then puerto rico would prosper with that kind of profit status. There would be a transition, but we would have no Political Risk and we would drive the
World. And the evidence is that these patent Innovation Box policies are not very good at that because what theyre targeting is the income generated from the patents rather than the research that leads to them. This is true of lots of r d tax credits. In holland they just designed one which is quite intelligent, i think, because it targets the research that leads to the r d. So the labor hired rather than the income generated from that r d. But i think we should remember that, for example, the act which in 1980 allowed publicly funded research to be patented. If you read that act, its really interesting. They also say we better make sure that the taxpayer doesnt pay twice, right . So just like year, i think the nih spent arounded 39 billion in research, both basic and applied. And the problem is what happens to the prices of these drugs . Do they reflect that input . So its not only and ive been reading a lot about this, but the pricing mechanism itself could be one way to be rewarded
Now that is 10 trillion. So there are not many places you can say i can take 10 trillion out of the spending stream to keep you healthier. Let me follow up on this now speaker gingrich. You are a conservative and as a result may have credibility than i do in some circumstances on the question on the role of government here. Why isnt it enough to count on private industry to do this . Why do we have to have a substantial investment from the federal government . Its a question about American History. [ inaudible ] and i are developing a project on why George Washington matters. And people dont often notice that the Founding Fathers wrote into the constitute a Patent Office because they so deeply believed in the future. They made investments. The First Federal highway was built during washingtons lifetime. They believed in improving things. They talked about them as improvements. Jefferson launched an expedition to the west and there was a Childrens Book on this called from sea to shining
Group recommended that cdc develop agencywide policies to provide clear and consistent requirements for biosafety for all agency laboratories. In response, cdc developed a specimen transport policy but has not developed other agencywide policies such as requirements for Laboratory Documentation and emergency protocols. As i stated at the outset the incidents you are examining today are part of a long series of safety lapses. Since 2007 gao has reported on these issues and has made multiple recommendations to improve federal oversight of highcontainment laboratories. The federal departments agreed with our recommendations and have conducted some activities to respond but have not implemented our key recommendation, to establish a single federal entity with responsibility for oversight of all highcontainment laboratories. We recommended the establishment of a single federal entity to, one, conduct governmentwide Strategic Planning for requirements for highcontainment lab rotorys, includi