Coordinator and making sure that people are aware and have the resources. Thats certainly not the time to be coming into the Government Office and working with us to make sure we have appropriate remedies. Another topic i raised seeing trade secrets as a form of intellectual property like copyright and trademark. We are beginning to get it. They have been actively advocating and working with european nations and they are very interested in whats happening here in the United States. You mentioned moving from first inventor to file with the systems we have now. Theres a number of changes i pr was created out of that whole process. We just need to see the implications. Just now, three or four years later, what it means. Later, what it means. Will it have positive implications or something that we may see there are issues with that. That is why, if we are going to legislate again in this area we need to be very careful about how we go about it because we are just now seeing the output of w
We cant lose ground. The new treatments can be extremely expensive and cost as much as 1,000 a pill. I understand the v. A. Has been able to negotiate with the Drug Companies to a lower cost. And ive heard estimates that v. A. Is instead paying closer to 600 a bill, is that correct . I you may not have a answer. I would like to not have to answer that question. We work very slowly and collaboratively with the manufacturers of those drugs and have been able to reach attractive arrangements for the continued purchase of those drugs. And we continue to have those conversations. My what im curious about is if maybe our veterans are maybe choosing to go to v. A. As opposed to the private care or tricare or other options because they might get access to this medication more easily and the doctors might be able to get the treatment done in a more timely manner . I think that is certainly the case. If a veteran who is medicare eligible was to go to a private provider, he would wind up with a v
Cyber espionage. The hack of opm is the latest example. Do the chinese steal our Naval Technology and apply it to their navy, and as a corollary to that, are you aware of any evidence concerning china stealing u. S. Civil Nuclear Technology and diverting it to its nuclear navy . Sir, im not personally aware of any instances of another nation stealing our Nuclear Technology and applying to their navy, including china. That may be happening, im not briefed on any intelligence that would implicate that. I think its wellunderstood that there is Cyber Espionage that occurs. We have concerns from time to time about our cleared defense contractors for example in their Cyber Security. I think Frank Kendall and at l is working hard to tighten that up as best we k. I was reflecting on this earlier we talk about Nuclear Matters. As a sort of graduate of the Navy Nuclear Propulsion program. One of the things that has intrigue said me intrigued me over the years, the element of Human Performance th
Vote the presiding officer is anyone in the chamber who wishes to vote or change his or her vote . Seeing none, on this vote the yeas are 84. The nays are 9. Threefifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in the affirmative, the motion is agreed to. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from nebraska. Mrs. Fischer thank you. Rise to speak on the Defense Authorization bill. Congress has passed this Bipartisan Legislation every year for the past 55 years, and once again this year the United States senate is debating this critical legislation to provide our men and women in uniform with the resources they need to keep americans safe. This is a bipartisan bill. It represents the combined efforts of members from both sides of the aisle. It walls approved unanimously by the Senate Armed Services committee. All 27 of our members voted for it. Thats more than a quarter of this body. The distinguished chairman, the senior senator from arizona, spoke on the
The next army secretary. Other nominees included the defense undersecretary for intelligence and for personnel and readiness and the assistant defense secretary who advises on weapons of mass destruction to the committee is chaired by her son senator john mccain. This is just under two hours. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] the Senate Armed Services Committee Meets today to consider the nominations of mark espers to be secretary of the army or robert l. Wilkie to be undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness Joseph D Kernan to be undersecretary of defense for intelligence and roberts were Nuclear Chemical and biological defense weapons. I would like to say that ive been pleased with the reaction of the secretary of defense and the administration being cooperative and responding to our questions and to our ability to carry out our responsibilities on the Defense Authorization bill. I think most members were happy with their briefing that we received concer