The hearing of the special committee on aging will come to order. Decades ago the warning caveat emptor, buyer beware, was the best advice one could give to a consumer seeking to borrow money. Well, that advice is still valid today. There are laws that seek to insure that consumers understand the obligations that they are taking on and that lenders have to play by the rules. Since the passage of the federal truth in lending act in 1968 and similar state laws around the nation, credit providers have been required to disclose key terms of Consumer Credit agreements up front in easytounderstand language. If you want to know what Interest Rate youll pay on a new credit card, youll find it in big, bold letters right there on the front of your application. Likewise, Interest Rates on car loans, personal loans, mortgages and myriad other Consumer Loan products are clearly and conspicuously displayed. But as we will learn today, that is not true for socalled pension advances. Pension advances
Will it be a major vehicle that nasas going to use to establish priority . And then what kind of challenges did the agency face that caused a oneyear delay to the issue shans of the road map . Thes a stro biology road map that again will come out shortly, the reason that its taken longer is because this science is evolving so rapidly. And how the Scientific Community looks at it, bringing in all these multiple disciplines that want to have a voice in astrobiology because you might have thought ten years ago if youre a helio physicist nothing you do has anything to do with astrobiology and now you say, wait, i can contribute. We have been trying to get the best science from the Scientific Community, get it properly reviewed and get it out as soon as we can and so were happy that its done and its about ready to go. How we use those road maps is definitely comes in several different ways. Basically, when anybody then proposes to nasa whether its to do research, to do a mission, they then
Interest with our pension advance than we would have paid if we simply paid off the interest over time on our existing debt. Moreover, we learned after the fact that there were alternatives we could have used to reduce our debt load while avoiding the high fees charged by structured investments. We have fully paid off structured investments. Looking back on our experience, it is clear we made a mistake. We should have been more aware of what we were buying. We also want to make clear that we accept that we signed the contract and accept responsibility for that. We should have known better. As we said, ours is a cautionary tale. We want to make two points to those who may find themselves in a situation similar to ours. First, you have other options. You should explore those options and resist the urge to reach for easy, immediate cash. Second, had we known what we now know, wed never have taken out the pension bands with their unreasonable fees. We wish we could do everything over again
Terrorist attack, the groups i meet with hate isil. In their view isil has hijacked their religion. It occupies no part of the islamic faith. And they do suffer discrimination. So when i meet with muslim communities about helping us in our Homeland Security efforts im also very much in listening mode when it comes to their issues with profiling at airports, our immigration laws, with building bridges, i think we need to go to the next level in helping them develop the counter message to isil. But what are they telling you when you listen . What they tell me is that our government should not be at war with islam. And that isil that the Islamic State is not islam and its not a state. Its a terrorist organization. That is claiming the banner of a religion that occupies Something Like one quarter of the worlds population. And that it is a religion of peace and brotherhood and they want people to understand that. Ive gone to meetings of Muslim Community leaders, for example, in northern vir
But was unable to send a ct, representative. Epa instead they submitted testimony and we have their testimony before us. Instead i ask it be entered into the record. And i also want to welcome to o. The committee senator bennett nd who will be here momentarily ano will be joining us not as a who member of the committee but as t member of the senate who will also be able to participate in this Committee Hearing. He will be here shortly. Mittee h in the interest of time, i wille withhold my Opening Statement the congressmans district tip includes silverton and north tet where the spill occurred. Mr. Tipton was elected to represent this area in november 2010. Orado wh congressman, your perspective i. Invaluable. We appreciate your service and look forward to your statement. Welcome, congressman tipton. He thank you, senator gardner. Extend my thanks to chairman vitter for convening todays my issues. When it comes to the impacts sse were going to be feeling in Southwestern Colorado but in