Population. And when we try to strengthen the population. Respect tobama with libya, i want to be very clear, i continue to believe that it was the right thing to do for us to intervene as part of a u. N. Mandated International Coalition to prevent some of the behaviorly murderous that gadhafi was talking about. That it was important for us to properly plan, prepare, and resource what came next. Was possible for us to do that effectively, i think that we didnt do it as effectively as we should have. Negate theot importance of us all now investing in making sure that there is a functioning libyan government. The fact that we now have a court,ent and national fragile as it is, requires us to do everything we can to encourage it. And this is a conversation i have had throughout my meetings during this trip, whether in london or now here. The partnership negotiations, what you are saying is differences continually narrowing, and i think it is up to the try to findto compromises and solutions on all of these issues. Settlementf dispute is something that has gained a lot of attention and attraction among those who generally oppose trade agreements. Keep in mind that the vast majority of trade agreements already contain such dispute resolution mechanisms. The terrible scenarios that are painted in which from the cooperations are going around are going around suin. None of these things have happened with the many trade agreements that currently exist. And that germany and the United States, and the eu, and others are already a part of. I think it is important for us a look at the facts and not bunch of hypothetical pronouncements. And the fact is, that for example in the Transpacific Partnership that weve negotiated, you have countries that right now have very few labor rights, but now are required to have labor rights and by the way can be enforced by workers the same way that corporations that. You have environmental provisions that now are fully enforceable and that raise standards in countries that may not have even had up until this point any serious environmental laws in place. So if you look point by point at t, the issue is not whether another we trade, the issue is under what terms. I believe that countries like the United States, like germany that already have high standards, that already make sure that how businesses operate are not completely based on profit but are also based on the common good, that that improves rather than detracts from the that of progressive goals brought me into office in the first place. Otherwise i would not support these laws. With respect to your last question, i do not envy on the Angela Merkel for not having terminus. I have said this before. I love this job. It is an extraordinary privilege. I wake up every day knowing that what i do matters and that i can help somebody somewhere, both inside the United States and around the world. Make the world a little safer, a little prosperous, help sometime get an education, held some anease get cured, it is extra ordinary privilege, but i have come to appreciate at least in the United States the wisdom of our founders. A bigk it is healthy for diverse country like ours to have some turnover. To use a phrase from basketball, some fresh like to come in fresh legs to come in. Phrase,e another sports i run my leg of the race and i passed the baton to the other person. Will will be sure that when i leave my office the desk will be clean and it will be better off in the way i found it. Now having said that, im glad angela is still sticking around because i think the world benefits from her steady presence. Admired for her remarkable endurance. And as a private citizen, i will andinue to admire her appreciate the work that she is doing. By the way, what is happening with respect to her position on refugees here, in europe, she is on the right side of history on this. And for her to take on some very in order tocs just a humanitarian concern but also practical concern, that in this globalized world it is very difficult for us to safely build walls. She is giving voice to the kinds of principles that bring people together, rather than divide them. Im very proud of her for that. And im proud of the german people for that. Thank you very much. Coming up at 6 p. M. Eastern withspan, newsmakers Veterans Affairs secretary robert mcdonald. He talks about efforts to reduce wait times at va hospitals, private medical care for veterans, and issues at va hospital. Q a, historian talks about the hit Broadway Musical hamilton that is based on his biography of Alexander Hamilton and the confronting work you did on the musical. I was reading your book on vacation in mexico and as i was reading it, hiphop song started rising up the page, and i said really . And then we started talking and he was saying that hamiltons life is a hiphop narrative then i started thinking what is the skype talking about what is this guy talking about. My first question to him, was ken hip hop be the vehicle for telling this kind of very large and complex story . Going to educate you about hiphop. He did it on the spot. He started pointing out that hiphop you can pack more information in the the lyrics in any other form because it is very dense. And he started talking about the fact that hiphop not only has rhyme endings, it has internal rhymes, so he started educating me on all these different devices that are very very important to the success of the show. Ontonight at eight eastern cspans q a. On wednesday, the House Investigative Panel on the issue of fetal Tissue Research. Whetherl determine Abortion Clinics are illegally making profits from fetal tissue and organs. The panel will investigate policies regarding fetal tissue, its cost, and how it is obtained. This is just under three hours. The select Investigative Panel will come to order and before we begin i would like to take a moment to adjust to guess who are in our audience today. All, we thank each of you for taking the time to come. We think it engages citizens are able welcome and valuable part of the political process. I only wish every hearing through the amount of interest that this hearing has drawn. For the purpose of this hearing, we are going to be examining the pricing of fetal tissue. It is an opportunity to for the select Investigative Panel to ask questions and have a thoughtful discussion. The number of people in the audience this morning demonstrates the strong interest in the topic and we welcome you. I do want to remind our guests in the audience that this chair is obligated under the rules of the house and the rules of the committee to maintain order and preserve the corpsman the committee room. I know that we can all have deep feelings on the issue, but we appreciate the audiences cooperation in maintaining order as we have a full discussion that we would like to have this morning on this important issue. I also want to welcome each of our witnesses who are here today. And at this time, im going to yield 10 minutes for an Opening Statement. Regretfully i, need to bring up an issue packet ofto the materials, the socalled exhibits that was provided to your staff yesterday. Before the Opening Statements and their reason is because we have just received your Opening Statement which was released to i just thought for the first time, and in your Opening Statement you make extensive reference to this package of socalled exhibits. Make yourore you Opening Statements, maybe we can resolve the issues otherwise we are going to have to even object to the documents referenced in your Opening Statement, and if i may matter chair, i will go over what our issues were are with those socalled exhibits. That you andld us other republican members intended to use the materials to question Witnesses Today and it is my understanding that these documents have been given to the witnesses. In fact, several of the witnesses mentioned the documents in their written statement. I reviewed the documents yesterday, some of them were created wholesale by republican staff, there was no explanation of the underlying Factual Foundation for this material, the methodology that was used in forng up with these charts some of the graph that we had. And frankly, i believe them to be misleading. And moreover, the conclusion that are drawn and frankly stated as fact and the staff created and an dated annotated index is false. Whichare other documents also have nothing to do with the topic of this hearing, although they were presented as if they did. They dont distinguish between the various services of the varietywhich provide a of different specimens including adult blood and bone marrow were used in biomedical research. Just to add to this, madam chair, yesterday the company who we believe these socalled exhibits came from sent a letter to you and a copy to us about problemsus, serious with the socalled exhibits. I would ask you madam to put that into the record, but i guess my point is, im concerned ,ecause the socalled exhibits i dont think they are really designed to find the facts about fetal Tissue Research, if they were we wouldve caused some expressing her he would have taken that position, and i dont believe that they are to remain as required by rule 16, class seven of the house, because they dont reflect creditability, credibility, but instead they cast this honor on the house. But you know in addition, if i may, because we discussed these exhibits yesterday and we got the letter, it also raises troubling questions about where this material came from. If you look at the letter, and i hope you read them an chair, believesays is they that the panel may have received material directly from mr. David delight and that have not been authenticated and that were obtained unlawfully. This is part of the whole issue of the investigation in texas and some of these may have been created by him himself. ,nd what the company did was they asked that we withdraw these documents until the general counsel of the house of representatives has an opportunity to review them and approve them. So madam chair, given the concerns about the Factual Foundation of these exhibits and also given the further concerns about how they were created, what theyre saying, i would just ask if we can withdraw these exhibits until these things are figured out. I think the gentlelady for inquiry. In receipt of the letter, i dont know anything about the attorney or how truthful their letter is. We do intend and well except your request. And we will you see that letter into the record. And for the hearing today. The document me speak to that for a moment. The documents have all been obtained through our regular investigatory work. We have had things that had come subpoenas, from former employees, citizens, that have filed request. Searcho an internet archive search engine. That is the way these documents have come to us. Arehe documents that we going to use for the hearing are the documents that we intend to use for the hearing, we will accept and you see the letter into the record. Chair, this is a parliamentary and creep. You have just stated that all of the data forms the basis of these exhibits was received from a variety of sources by the committee including whistleblowers, have all of those documents been provided to the minority staff of this committee . We have provided documents to the minority staff. Have you provided all of the documents madam chair . I think all of those documents have been provided to you. Madam chair, i would ask a further parliamentary inquiry continue, might i be asked to inquire the appropriate staff member of the foundational basis for these exhibits . Particularly exhibit b1, b2, there is a chart exhibit b for which you intend to use. 6. Ere is an exhibit b i would like to be able to ask the staff how these documents were created and what what do you mean by foundational basis . For example madam chair if you take a look at exhibit b1, exhibit b1 appears to be a chart and it has three boxes, Abortion Clinic, put germany, business researcher, and between the three boxes there are dollar signs and arrows going back and forth, there are questions and so on. I dont know what information this is based on, i dont know i would like to know how this was created. Or if you look at exhibit b to for example, exhibit b to in some document, it doesnt say where it is from, it appears to have been taken from some website, but this is one of the documents that some express is saying that they think might have been taken not from their company, but from someplace else and not talking about fetal tissue. But i dont know where that comes from. The exhibit has not identified where comes from. But i suspect that they Witnesses Today and that the majority attending somehow try to use this to talk about the socalled sale of fetal tissue. Is just again something taken off of a website, we dont know the source of that. Exhibit four appears to be a bar graph, and what it says is procurement business, number of partnerships with Abortion Clinics than it has a bar graph, then exhibit five, procurement Business Revenue growth, that it has another bargraph, but we and wenow who made those dont know where the information came from. So if you are the witnesses are relying on this, this is being presented as if it is a fact, but in fact it is not. And then b6, this is one that particularly disturbs me, it says excerpt of a draft contract between the pb and the Abortion Clinic. As the b1 graph that you are referencing was created by staff for discussion purposes it was created by material that but has been submitted to us, to the committee. To so the document be thatit is something again was something submitted to us. And before was something created by staff. Now does the gentlelady have a motion . Yes just to finish my statement madam secretary. I would like to be able to question the staff member who created all of these documents. If you would like to include in your questioning and your time madam chair i think that if youxhibits were wont let me find out what the basis of these are then i will object. I would make a point of order that these materials are against the rule 16 cost seven of the house and i would ask for their inclusion exclusion. Has gentleladys motion been made. And the motion is table. D. That was the motion are dismayed madam. You made the motion to exclude. Uled, and iu r moved to appeal. We will rule on the motion to table first. And the motion is tabled. I appealed the ruling of the chair. And the appeal is denied. We will have the clerk recall the row for the recorded vote on the motion to appeal. Mr. Pitts. Iss black motion to exclude his table. At this time i will begin the Opening Statement and we will then move to our first panel of witnesses who have . Madam chair, may i du i want to ask at this point that your words be taken down regarding the assertion that staff quote leak documents to the entity. These documents had already been given to witnesses, and then reposted to your website. So i think your words need to be taken down. Accusing our staff of making that is not true and that is what should be taken down. Those words should be taken down. The soft had asked the staff had asked for the documents be shared before they went to the website and then they were released to the entity and then in order to take the comments down, the comments have to be personal in nature. So with that, lets begin with our Opening Statement. And then we will receive our first panel of witnesses. Earlier, iginning want to welcome all of our witnesses you are here today. Im going to introduce each of as we move forward with our testimony on the pricing of fetal tissue. As part of my opening state ment, i will present a narrative about the exhibit that todays hearing will discuss. I have said many times my hope is that those parties can Work Together on some things and todays subject matter should be an opportunity to do so for a couple of reasons. First, at our initial hearing on bioethics and fetal tissue, all witnesses from both sides agreed that no one should profit from the sale of baby body parts. Nobody. Second, the democrats overwhelmingly supported a prohibition on profiting from fetal tissue cells during the 1993 passage of the National Institute of Health Revitalization act. Passescongressman legislation out of the energy and Commerce Committee and amended theessman nih bill on the floor to make clear that profiting from the sale of baby body parts was a crime. These i ask my colleagues on the in theide to join discussion about a statute that your side pass. Toant to call your attention five posters that will provisionally call the discussion. The first chart presents three entities involved in the business of selling the body parts. That chart depicts just the middlemen, they procurement business, pays the Abortion Clinic for fetal tissue. He second chart is a websites bring grabbed from the procurement business of how to buy baby parts online. And the a new website baby body parts for care of business has been spun off to a new entity. That chart shows the dropdown box for every part imaginable. Hands. Iver, then you click on the next box and you click the gestation. Than you click and you proceed to checkout you select your format shipping. The third chart shows the daily task affirmed by the procurement business employee inside the Abortion Clinic. Once the order is communicated, the procurement staff starts to work. Getting consent, procuring tishri, and sending to the customer. Colleagues have voiced concerns over privacy throughout the investigation. Amongd ho