Are all follows at the kennan institu institute, so we wanted to get them all together. Alan cull son, the moscow correspondent for the wall street journal for a decade and a half, sergei, who has a show and elena, a special investigative correspondent. So its a really, really good group of journalists. I encourage you to join us on thursday mortganing. Let me start todays event, russias war against terror. Elena had just published this book. The evolution of terrorism in russias north caucuses and we have copies for sale up front and she will inscribe it for you and write a comprehensive plan for dealing with terrorism on the front cover. Im kidding. Thats chapt ir 3. So, elena is associate professor of International Security studies in the college of International Security affairs at the National Defense university. Thats a Government Security Oriented University in case that didnt make it clear. Her publications including this latest book have appeared foreign wide including in jour
Electio elections. Later treasury secretary jack lou on the upcoming debt ceiling debate. Every five years, the departments of agriculture and health and Human Services issue dietary guidelines and nutritional information to the public. Next the House Agriculture Committee hears from tom vilsack and Silvia Burwell about the process. This is two and a half hours. Good morning. Lets go ahead and get started. Trent, will you open us with a prayer please . Dear heavenly father, we ask that you bless this committee. We ask that you bless this government. We ask that you bless all those who lead this nation. Amen. This Meeting Committee of agriculture regarding the development of the 2015 dietary guidelines for american will come to order. I want to thank our witnesses for being here this morning. It is no small feat to get two of the secretaries of two of the most important agencies in government to sit at the same table at the same time, so i thank you secretary vilsack, secretary burwell,
To the act the dga shall contain guidelines for the general public, shall be based on the preponderance at the time the report is prepared and promoted by each agency carrying out food or nutritional program. A sound Development Process is important because it is extremely difficult to reverse or change Public Policy once implemented without causing consumer confusion. At a time when consumers are already subjected to conflicting and often contradictory health information, staying within scope of the intent of the law by providing with sciencebased information is more likely to contribute to improve Public Health outcomes. The process of the 2015 gga began in 2012 when secretary vilsack and secretary burwells predecessor secretary sibilius created the committee. Though its not specifically authorized all must be chartered under the federal Advisory Committee act that requires it be accessible by the public and stoeb operating, overseeing and terminating committees. This makes the Commi
Secretary vilsack and i agree we thought that was an important thing to do. Thats the part of the process in terms of public input. I think the question here is that, one, did they follow the guidelines and what steps were taken to make sure the committee followed the law and from an ethical standpoint is once youve served as your capacity of that Advisory Committee and major recommendations, what is your responsibility in moving forward . And one of the things we dont want is that these advisory turn this into some kind of a profitable situation on their behalf because of their participation on that Advisory Committee. Be regard to these these are voluntary nonpaid. They have to file Financial Disclosures on an annual basis as they go through this process so those are things we want to protect against. With regard to the specific question of a press briefing or some kind of briefing, i apologize, not familiar with that. As i said, we have focused on the Public Comments and the steps a
Recommendations were based on dietary guidelines. Secretary burwell, what instructions were given the Advisory Committee members regarding the Advisory Committees disbandment . With regard to the specifics of the disbandment, i can get back to you, congressman, with regard to the direction that was given to review the science with regard to the issues that were in front of them with regard to the dietary guidelines and present a report about that. So with regard to the question of disbandment, i dont know what, if any, specific direction was given, but i think the point that youve made, which is this is about an Advisory Committee producing a document, an independent group of people producing a document, that then is an element in the basis is what their role is. Was the role to then go out and start doing a road show on their recommendation . Is that a part of the scope of that committee . With regard to what followed what we followed at the department and what i know about is once we