[Senate Hearing 111-232]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
S. Hrg. 111-232
PROTECTING PUBLIC AND ANIMAL HEALTH:
HOMELAND SECURITY AND THE FEDERAL
VETERINARIAN WORKFORCE
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
OVERSIGHT OF GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT,
THE FEDERAL WORKFORCE, AND THE
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SUBCOMMITTEE
of the
COMMITTEE ON
HOMELAND SECURITY AND
GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
FEBRUARY 26, 2009
__________
Available via http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/index.html
Printed for the use of the Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs
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COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut, Chairman
CARL LEVIN, Michigan SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii TOM COBURN, Oklahoma
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware JOHN McCAIN, Arizona
MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio
MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada
CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri LINDSEY GRAHAM, South Carolina
JON TESTER, Montana
RONALD W. BURRIS, Illinois
MICHAEL F. BENNET, Colorado
Michael L. Alexander, Staff Director
Brandon L. Milhorn, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Trina Driessnack Tyrer, Chief Clerk
OVERSIGHT OF GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT, THE FEDERAL WORKFORCE, AND THE
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SUBCOMMITTEE
DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii, Chairman
CARL LEVIN, Michigan GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio
MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana LINDSEY GRAHAM, South Carolina
ROLAND W. BURRIS, Illinois
MICHAEL F. BENNET, Colorado
Lisa M. Powell, Chief Counsel and Acting Staff Director
Joel C. Spangenberg, Professional Staff Member
Jennifer A. Hemingway, Minority Staff Director
Thomas A. Bishop, Minority Professional Staff Member
Benjamin B. Rhodeside, Chief Clerk
C O N T E N T S
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Opening statements:
Page
Senator Akaka................................................ 1
Senator Voinovich............................................ 3
WITNESSES
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Lisa R. Shames, Director, Natural Resources and Environment, U.S.
Government Accountability Office............................... 4
Nancy H. Kichak, Associate Director for Strategic Human Resources
Policy, U.S. Office of Personnel Management.................... 5
Gerald W. Parker, DVM, Ph.D., MS, Principal Deputy Assistant
Secretary, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness
and Response, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services..... 6
Jill M. Crumpacker, Director, Office of Human Capital Management,
U.S. Department of Agriculture................................. 8
Thomas J. McGinn, III, DVM, Chief Veterinarian and Director,
Food, Agriculture, and Veterinary Defense Division, Office of
Health Affairs and Office of the Chief Medical Officer, U.S.
Department of Homeland Security................................ 9
W. Ron DeHaven, DVM, MBA, Chief Executive Officer, American
Veterinary Medical Association................................. 19
Michael Gilsdorf, DVM, Executive Vice President, National
Association of Federal Veterinarians........................... 20
Marguerite Pappaioanou, DVM, MPVM, Ph.D., Dip ACVPM, Executive
Director, Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges.. 21
Alphabetical List of Witnesses
Crumpacker, Jill M.:
Testimony.................................................... 8
Prepared statement........................................... 59
DeHaven, W. Ron, DVM, MBA:
Testimony.................................................... 19
Prepared statement........................................... 80
Gilsdorf, Michael, DVM:
Testimony.................................................... 20
Prepared statement with an attachment........................ 88
Kichak, Nancy H.:
Testimony.................................................... 5
Prepared statement........................................... 39
McGinn, Thomas J., III, DVM:
Testimony.................................................... 9
Prepared statement........................................... 64
Pappaioanou, Marguerite, DVM, MPVM, Ph.D., Dip ACVPM:
Testimony.................................................... 21
Prepared statement........................................... 99
Parker, Gerald W., DVM, Ph.D., MS:
Testimony.................................................... 6
Prepared statement with an attachment........................ 42
Shames, Lisa R.:
Testimony.................................................... 4
Prepared statement........................................... 29
APPENDIX
Questions and Responses for the Record from:
Ms. Shames................................................... 113
Ms. Kichak................................................... 115
Dr. Parker................................................... 122
Ms. Crumpacker............................................... 126
Dr. McGinn................................................... 135
Dr. Gilsdorf................................................. 138
Dr. Pappaioanou.............................................. 142
Background....................................................... 160
GAO report entitled ``Veterinarian Workforce, Actions Are Needed
to Ensure Sufficient Capacity for Protecting Public and Animal
Health,'' GAO-09-178, February 2009............................ 165
PROTECTING PUBLIC AND ANIMAL HEALTH: HOMELAND SECURITY AND THE FEDERAL
VETERINARIAN WORKFORCE
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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2009
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee on Oversight of Government
Management, the Federal Workforce,
and the District of Columbia,
of the Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:50 p.m., in
room SD-342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Daniel K.
Akaka, Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding.
Present: Senators Akaka and Voinovich.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR AKAKA
Senator Akaka. I call this hearing of the Subcommittee on
Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and
the District of Columbia to order.
I want to, with much aloha, welcome our witnesses to this
hearing and I want to thank you very much for being here. The
topic of today's hearing is an area that we want to work on and
try to deal with, and we have invited you because we feel you
can help us do that.
Today's hearing, ``Protecting Public and Animal Health:
Homeland Security and the Federal Veterinarian Workforce,''
will examine the results of a Government Accountability Office
(GAO) review of the Federal veterinarian workforce. The Federal
veterinarian workforce is on the front lines in ensuring our
homeland security, public health, and food safety. In total,
there are over 3,000 veterinarians working in the Federal
Government. Their role is especially critical in areas of
disease prevention and response.
Although we are not facing a major disease outbreak in the
United States right now, we must remain vigilant, and this is
what this hearing is about. About 75 percent of newly emerging
infectious diseases originate in animals. One example of this
type of zoonotic disease is avian influenza. According to the
World Health Organization, the H5N1 strain of avian influenza
has led to over 250 human fatalities in about 400 known cases,
over a 60 percent fatality rate. This outbreak has occurred
overseas, but we should remember that diseases do not respect
international borders and may prove difficult to control.
Our livestock and food supply also could be endangered by
animal diseases. The 2001 foot and mouth disease outbreak in
the United Kingdom led to the slaughter of more than four
million animals and cost the British agriculture and food
sectors over $5 billion. Some experts believe that a similar
foot and mouth disease outbreak in the United States could
reduce our agricultural income by over $14 billion.
I requested that GAO undertake a comprehensive review of
the Federal veterinarian workforce because I was concerned that
our Nation's homeland security, public health, and food supply
and safety may be harmed by the growing shortage of
veterinarians. Unfortunately, GAO's report suggests that these
concerns are well founded. This hearing today provides us an
opportunity to assess the state of this crucial workforce and
ways to improve it.
I would like to highlight a number of the issues that
concern me in particular, which I hope our witnesses will
address. GAO has listed strategic human capital management on
its High-Risk Series since 2001. It is unclear why agencies,
departments, and the Office of Personnel Management have not
taken more steps to address the causes of human capital
challenges in such a critical part of the Federal workforce.
Direct hire authority is not enough. Strategic workforce
planning through a collaborative, ongoing process to anticipate
and resolve critical workforce challenges among Federal
agencies, with the support of the Office of Personnel
Management, would be a better approach.
There is a pressing need to address Federal veterinarian
workforce shortages. The Food Safety and Inspection Service
(FSIS) has a 15 percent veterinarian work shortfall. Some
veterinarians in this agency are assigned to multiple slaughter
plants and have voiced their concerns that they cannot always
meet their responsibilities, such as sanitation and food safety
checks, and perform high-quality work. Although FSIS is using
recruitment bonuses and internships to attempt to lower its
vacancy rates, this is not a comprehensive approach to the
problem. Due to unpleasant work conditions at slaughterhouses
and their remote locations, along with limited professional
development opportunities and lower pay, FSIS has difficulty
attracting and retaining veterinarians.
A lack of comprehensive human capital planning also leads
to competition for veterinarians between agencies, even within
the same department. For instance, according to GAO, many FSIS
inspectors move to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service (APHIS) within the U.S. Department of Agriculture for
greater pay and more appealing work. According to APHIS, 17
percent of their veterinarian hires over a recent 4-year period
were from FSIS.
A wave of Federal veterinarian retirements may worsen these
workforce challenges. More than one-fourth of the veterinarians
at key agencies for public health and food safety will be
eligible to retire within 3 years.
In sum, a shortage of Federal veterinarians and lack of
comprehensive planning to address the shortage require
immediate, sustained, and focused attention. I look forward to
hearing more about the issues affecting the Federal
veterinarian workforce. We should not wait for another homeland
security, public health, or food safety crisis to begin to
address this problem.
So at this point, let me call on the Subcommittee's Ranking
Member, Senator Voinovich, a good friend and a leader in human
capital.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR VOINOVICH
Senator Voinovich. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When I first
heard about having this hearing, I thought, what are we
spending our time on this issue for, until I got into it. We
probably should have had this hearing 8 years ago. Senator
Akaka and I have been working on the human capital crisis for a
long time and we are proud of the changes that we made in Title
V of the Federal Code, but as I read the background on this, it
is just incredible to me where we are today.
My brain says, where was somebody that looked back and
looked this whole thing over and said, we have got a problem
here? First of all, we are not producing enough of these
people. Second of all, when you look at the pay schedule within
the Federal Government compared to the private sector, it is
not adequate to get the job done. You think to yourself, why
didn't somebody bring this up to the Office of Management and
Budget and say, look, we just can't keep going this way. So we
just have hobbled along. Some of you have been here in your
departments for a while. I would like to know why this wasn't
brought to the top, or was it brought to the top and nobody
paid attention and didn't care about it?
But my logic tells me that, first, we are not producing
enough veterinarians in the country, period. Second, I know
from my experience as Governor of Ohio, it is harder to get
into veterinarian school than it is into medical school, so
maybe we ought to get some of these folks that are thinking
about becoming doctors going into veterinarian school.
And maybe we need to do what we did, Senator Akaka, I think
indirectly you were involved in this, and that is with the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, where we recognized 7 years ago
that they were closing down nuclear engineering schools around
the country and we went up to MIT and we went to--I am from the
University of Cincinnati--and said to them, hey, there is going
to be a great need for these people. And today, and I am very
proud of this, the NRC has been able to replace the people that
have been retired and they have also been able to bring on more
people so they can handle relicensing and also these new
applications that are coming in for new nuclear facilities.
So the real issue here is trying to figure out where we go
from here, and that is the end of my statement. I will put the
rest of it in the record. We are going to have another vote at
3:45, so I am anxious to hear your testimony and maybe have a
chance to ask some questions. Thank you.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Senator Voinovich, for
your leadership.
Let me welcome our first panel of witnesses to the
Subcommittee today: Lisa Shames, Director of Natural Resources
and Environment, U.S. Government Accountability Office; Nancy
Kichak, Associate Director for Strategic Human Resources
Policy, U.S. Office of Personnel Management; Dr. Gerald Parker,
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Preparedness and Response, U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services; Jill Crumpacker, Director, Office of
Human Capital Management, U.S. Department of Agriculture; and
Dr. Thomas McGinn, Chief Veterinarian and Director, Food,
Agriculture, and Veterinary Defense Division, Office of Health
Affairs and Office of the Chief Medical Officer, U.S.
Department of Homeland Security.
As you know, it is the custom of the Subcommittee to swear
in all witnesses and I would ask all of you to please stand and
raise your right hand.
Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to
give the Subcommittee is the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth, so help you, God?
Ms. Shames. I do.
Ms. Kichak. I do.
Dr. Parker. I do.
Ms. Crumpacker. I do.
Dr. McGinn. I do.
Senator Akaka. Thank you. Let the record show that our
witnesses responded in the affirmative.
Before we start, I want you to know that your full written
statement will be made a part of the record. I would also like
to remind you to keep your remarks brief, given the number of
people testifying this afternoon.
Ms. Shames, will you please proceed with your statement.
TESTIMONY OF LISA R. SHAMES,\1\ DIRECTOR, NATURAL RESOURCES AND
ENVIRONMENT, U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE
Ms. Shames. Thank you. Chairman Akaka, Senator Voinovich,
and Members of the Subcommittee, I am pleased to be here today
to discuss our findings on the Federal Government's
veterinarian workforce. As you know, there is a growing
shortage of veterinarians nationwide, yet GAO's overall
conclusion is that the Federal Government has not yet assessed
whether its veterinarian workforce is sufficient to protect
public and animal health.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Shames appears in the Appendix on
page 29.
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First, at the department level, USDA and HHS, which employ
about two-thirds of the government's veterinarians, appear to
be unaware of the challenges their component agencies face. For
example, as you mentioned, Chairman Akaka, USDA's Food Safety
and Inspection Service (FSIS), has not been fully staffed for
over a decade. This shortage is troubling because its
veterinarians who work in the slaughterhouses told us that
their ability to meet food safety responsibilities is impaired.
Still, USDA reported that its agencies had met or surpassed
certain veterinarian workforce goals and made no mention of the
FSIS shortages.
Further, USDA's agencies compete against one another for
veterinarians. FSIS loses veterinarians to other parts of USDA,
where the work is more appealing, opportunities for advancement
are greater, and the salaries are higher. In fact, the average
annual salary at FSIS was the lowest among USDA's agencies that
employ veterinarians.
Similarly, HHS was unaware that a FDA advisory committee
reported that the Center for Veterinary Medicine was ``in a
state of crisis.'' The Center is responsible for ensuring the
safety of veterinarian drugs and regulating animal feed.
Next, government-wide, at the time of our review, OPM had
not conducted an effort to address current and future
veterinarian challenges. We are pleased to note that early in
February, OPM approved government-wide direct hire authority
for agency use. This is a positive first step. Agencies'
concerns about their workforce are likely to worsen, though, as
large numbers of veterinarians become eligible to retire in the
near future. For example, USDA's Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service reports that 30 percent of its veterinarians
will be eligible to retire by the end of 2011. In fact,
government-wide, 27 percent will be eligible to retire within 3
years.
As the shortage grows, agencies that pay veterinarians
higher salaries have a recruitment advantage. Average salaries
vary widely across the government, from $70,000 for the
Department of Interior to $122,000 at the Department of
Homeland Security.
In conclusion, until USDA and HHS conduct department-wide
assessments, they will not fully understand the size and nature
of their challenges to recruit and retain veterinarians. This
will lead their component agencies without a high-level
solution to problems they have been unable to solve on their
own. Moreover, OPM will not have the necessary information to
assess current and future needs. In the end, the government
risks missing opportunities to find common solutions to attract
veterinarians into Federal service.
This concludes my prepared statement and I would be pleased
to answer any questions that you have.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much for your statement. Now
I will call on Ms. Kichak for her statement.
TESTIMONY OF NANCY H. KICHAK,\1\ ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR
STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCES POLICY, U.S. OFFICE OF PERSONNEL
MANAGEMENT
Ms. Kichak. Chairman Akaka, Senator Voinovich, I appreciate
your invitation to speak with you today about the Federal
Government's veterinarian workforce and what the Office of
Personnel Management is doing to alleviate shortages within
this critical occupation.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Kichak appears in the Appendix on
page 39.
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Veterinarians are a vital part of the Federal workforce and
are critically important to ensuring the safety of our Nation's
food supply and protecting public health. So the fact that we
are experiencing a shortage in some agencies is of real concern
to us.
I assure you, we have been working on this problem for some
time. OPM published the regulations implementing direct hire
authority on June 13, 2003, and in less than 3 months, a direct
hire authority was issued to the Department of Agriculture to
fill veterinarian medical officer positions. Since that time,
we have remained strongly committed to providing the tools
necessary to assist the government in filling these critical
positions.
You have asked how OPM assures that plans are in place to
identify the workforce needs such as those that arise for
veterinarians. A critical source for early identification of
concerns in human capital management is the Chief Human Capital
Officers Council and its subcommittees. This organization has
been key to bringing together the government officials charged
with the strategic management of human capital. Another source
of data is the human capital metrics gathered under our program
of oversight and assistance, where we require agencies to
undertake strategic workforce planning and identify mission
critical occupations.
We recognize that solving a problem like the veterinarian
shortage is necessarily a shared responsibility because those
who work at the sites where services are delivered are most
often in the best position to identify effective remedies. In
this spirit, we have worked extensively with the Department of
Agriculture to understand their needs concerning the
veterinarian workforce. Our efforts included convening focus
groups of veterinarians, and our staff visited slaughterhouses
where they worked in collaboration with Agriculture
veterinarians to help us update our qualifications and
classification standards. As a result, the starting grade for
veterinarians has increased from GS-9 to GS-11, which is a 20
percent increase in starting pay for veterinarians, and that
happened beginning in 2007.
On February 12, 2009, we issued the government-wide direct
hire authority for veterinarians that will allow agencies to
appoint veterinarians without following competitive procedures
as long as they give public notice, and we are not done. We are
convening a forum in March where we are going to bring together
all the agencies that have veterinarians to discuss some of the
shared concerns.
We are highlighting veterinarians at the FSIS on our
website, USAJOBS. I can share that with you. It looks really
good. If you go to our USAJOBS website, this is one of the
first jobs that comes up, and usually that is very effective in
gathering applications for us. So we are going to continue to
work at this problem and I will be happy to answer any
questions. Thank you.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Ms. Kichak. Now we will
hear from Dr. Parker.
TESTIMONY OF GERALD W. PARKER, DVM, PH.D., MS,\1\ PRINCIPAL
DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY, OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES
Dr. Parker. Good afternoon, Chairman Akaka and Senator
Voinovich. In the time allowed for my oral presentation, I will
briefly highlight some of the myriad ways in which
veterinarians contribute to the mission critical functions of
HHS, specifically at the FDA, NIH, CDC, and my office, Office
of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response
(ASPR).
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\1\ The prepared statement of Dr. Parker with an attachment appears
in the Appendix on page 42.
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The Food and Drug Administration employs veterinarians
throughout their Centers to ensure the safety of drugs,
biologics devices, and foods. When issues regarding a zoonotic
disease arise, FDA taps its veterinary resources as needed to
address the incident or issue. As a primary role of FDA
veterinarians in responding to zoonotic disease outbreak is to
provide technical scientific advice and to help coordinate
FDA's activities with those Federal, State, and local agencies,
FDA believes this flexibility allows them to handle their role
in responding to and supporting zoonotic disease outbreak
investigations. FDA believes that its veterinarian workforce is
sufficient to address current needs, but they will continue to
work through the Department to ensure that veterinary resources
are appropriate to fulfill anticipated future needs.
In contrast to FDA, successful recruitment and retention of
veterinarians at the National Institutes of Health poses a
particular challenge to its workforce needs for the biomedical
research enterprise. Veterinarians at the NIH must have board
specialization in laboratory animal medicine and veterinary
pathology and/or an advanced degree in a basic science
discipline to pursue a research career path in the biomedical
sciences.
As you would suspect, very few recent veterinary graduates
are interested in accruing additional debt immediately upon
graduation in order to enter an additional and demanding
residency program. I believe this disincentive is compounded by
the realization that their veterinary training experience was
predominately to prepare them for traditional clinic veterinary
medicine, not biomedical research or laboratory animal
medicine.
Consequently, the NIH Intramural Research Program is
experiencing a critical shortage of veterinarians to support
the agency's broader biomedical research mission. If this
shortage continues, it will also have a negative impact on an
operating program in my office, the Biomedical Advanced
Research and Development Authority (BARDA). BARDA's mission is
to move the most promising medical countermeasures to defend
against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats
as well as pandemic influenza and other emerging infectious
diseases from the research and development phase at NIH and
elsewhere to advanced development and FDA licensure. Like the
NIH, BARDA is also dependent upon the unique veterinary
specialties in laboratory animal medicine, veterinary
pathology, and comparative medicine.
Veterinarians in the CDC work on the multidisciplinary
public health team to identify, prevent, and control public
health threats through applied epidemiology, laboratory animal
medicine, toxicology, surveillance, field and clinical
investigations, and human-animal interface research, either
through direct hands-on work or through technical assistance
and consultation to State and local public health stakeholders.
For example, CDC veterinarians work with our Federal partners
to identify potential risks associated with importation of
animals and animal products that may cause human disease and
they monitor the occurrence and progression of infectious
diseases within wildlife and waterfowl.
Veterinarians bring a unique perspective and breadth of
scientific knowledge to the applied public health team. They
are a valuable and unique resource and must be maintained with
continued recruitment, retention, and training opportunities as
they face similar challenges that I mentioned for the NIH.
Within HHS, the ASPR, my office, provides the mechanism for
a coordinated Federal response to supplement State, local,
Territorial, and Tribal resources in response to public health
and medical care needs through Emergency Support Function 8,
under the National Response Framework. This may include
veterinary or animal health issues for potential or actual
emergencies or major disasters, in which we play a support role
to provide veterinary medical services to mass care, urban
search and rescue, and agricultural.
Veterinary assets available within HHS that may be
mobilized in response to a disaster include the National
Veterinary Response Teams as part of the National Disaster
Medical System, the U.S. Public Health Commissioned Corps
Officers, which constitute over 6,000 health professionals. And
although there are only 100 Commissioned Corps veterinarians at
the current time, they have established themselves as critical
members of that multidisciplinary public health team for
domestic deployments and more increasingly through
international deployments for humanitarian assistance and
health diplomacy.
In addition to HHS assets, we can also call upon assets in
the Department of Defense to help in natural disasters.
In conclusion, veterinarians serve key roles as scientists
and program leaders in the HHS medical and public health
enterprise. Veterinarians with advanced degree training and
experience in the biomedical sciences and public health, as
well as specialty training and credentials in laboratory animal
medicine and veterinary pathology, are critical to the
Department's biomedical research and emergency public health
enterprise.
Thank you for your time and your interest in this subject,
and I will answer any of your questions.
Senator Akaka. Thank you, Dr. Parker. Now we will receive
the statement of Ms. Crumpacker.
TESTIMONY OF JILL M. CRUMPACKER,\1\ DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF HUMAN
CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Ms. Crumpacker. Chairman Akaka and Ranking Member
Voinovich, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you
today on behalf of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA),
to update you on our activities regarding our Federal
veterinarian workforce. My comments highlight the written
testimony provided to you.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Crumpacker appears in the
Appendix on page 59.
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As you have mentioned, Mr. Chairman, USDA is the largest
employer of the nearly 3,000 veterinarians in the Federal
Government. To date, our mission areas that employ
veterinarians have implemented the full range of Federal
workforce flexibilities available, including recruitment
bonuses, referral and retention allowances, flexible work
schedules, student loan repayments, and most recently,
attainment of indefinite direct hire appointing authority from
OPM.
Challenges remain, including most notably demand for
veterinarians that significantly outpaces supply, changing
demographics within the profession, stressful and remote work
conditions, and competition with the private sector.
Even so, USDA continues its efforts to attract
veterinarians. To this end, we are revamping our department-
wide Human Resources Leadership Council to identify common
issues among our agencies where we could leverage resources for
training, development, and recruitment activities. We are using
a model similar to NRC, by the way, Ranking Member. We are also
working with OPM, initiating steps to obtain a government-wide
salary survey, streamlining job announcements, and exploring
the feasibility of an automated candidate search and
qualifications screening tool.
With respect to contingency or incident planning, USDA
supports a total force approach. We continue to work closely
with our State, local, academic, and association partners. We
have engaged in training National Incident Management Teams,
sought expansion and improvements to the National Animal
Emergency Response Corps, updated our active pandemic plan,
issued contingency plans for the use of foot and mouth disease
vaccine while continuing to support development and application
of new vaccine techniques. And we have continued to collaborate
with our State, Federal, and local agencies in support of our
mutual goals rooted in the Homeland Security Presidential
Directives.
Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member, veterinarians are critical
to the USDA core mission goals of protecting the Nation's food
supply and protecting the health of U.S. livestock. While the
challenges of achieving a full force Federal veterinarian
workforce are many, our ultimate goal is to be able to remove
this occupation from our USDA mission critical High-Risk List.
To that end, we appreciate your continued interest in
addressing these challenges.
This concludes my statement. I will be glad to respond to
any questions you or the Ranking Member may have. Thank you.
Senator Akaka. Thank you, Ms. Crumpacker. And now we will
receive the statement of Dr. McGinn.
TESTIMONY OF THOMAS J. McGINN, III, DVM,\1\ CHIEF VETERINARIAN
AND DIRECTOR, FOOD, AGRICULTURE, AND VETERINARY DEFENSE
DIVISION, OFFICE OF HEALTH AFFAIRS AND OFFICE OF THE CHIEF
MEDICAL OFFICER, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Dr. McGinn. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member
Voinovich. On behalf of Secretary Napolitano, I would like to
thank you for your leadership in the protection and ensuring
the security of our country. I would also like to thank the
more than 3,000 Federal veterinarians and their State, local,
and academic partners serving every day to protect our Nation.
The GAO is to be commended for this report, as well.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Dr. McGinn appears in the Appendix on
page 64.
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The protection of animal and public health by the Federal
veterinary workforce is built upon two solemn oaths. The first
oath, as a Federal employee, to support and defend the
Constitution. The second oath, as a veterinarian, to use our
knowledge and skills to the benefit of society through the
protection of animal health and the promotion of public health.
The commonality of these two oaths is protection.
Though few in number, the veterinarians employed in DHS are
engaged in all aspects of homeland security, including
research, countermeasure development, policy development,
working animal care, border protection, infrastructure
protection, intelligence, and surveillance. DHS veterinarians
embrace the one health concept that unites the health security
of people, animals, and the environment.
The veterinary workforce also has a direct impact on our
Nation's ability to protect the critical infrastructure of food
and agriculture that account for one in six of American jobs.
The veterinary workforce protects animal and public health in
the face of catastrophic incidences. This is why it is
essential that we, one, determine the veterinary resources
needed for a catastrophic event; two, better utilize our
constrained resources; and three, support the development of
the veterinary workforce to ensure recovery through enhanced
national resilience.
Catastrophic incidences could include an intentional food
contamination that stretches across the Nation's food supply
chain, creating overwhelming morbidity and mortality, a
pandemic resulting in a 40 percent reduction in the workforce,
or an outbreak of foot and mouth disease across as many as 30
States. Such events could strain our current veterinary
workforce to the point where States could no longer send
veterinarians to other States and the Federal workforce would
be strained.
After a 2002 outbreak of exotic Newcastle disease in only
three States, Dr. Ron DeHaven, former Administrator of APHIS,
stated, ``Even with exceptional collaboration between State and
Federal agencies and industry, the exotic Newcastle outbreak
taxed our human resources to the max. If there had been a
second regional outbreak or, worse, a national animal health
emergency, we simply would not have been able to respond.''
If it had been 30 States instead of three, what are the
resources that we would need and where would they come from? My
first recommendation, we must determine the requirements and
then clearly delineate the tasks and capabilities that must be
filled by the Federal, State, local, and Tribal governments as
well as the private citizens and veterinarians. More should be
done and DHS recommends a comprehensive and detailed study
across all levels of government and the private sector to
determine what are the requirements for a veterinary workforce
to respond to a catastrophic incident.
But we do not need a new study to confidently state that
the current veterinary workforce is inadequate for catastrophic
incidences. The GAO report found that 12 of 17 agencies did not
have sufficient veterinarians to address zoonotic outbreaks and
to fulfill their day-to-day responsibilities.
My second recommendation is to better utilize our
constrained resources by growing and training the Nation's
veterinary workforce to effectively implement the National
Incident Management System and provide veterinarians with a
measured and clear understanding of the critical
responsibilities in the event of a catastrophe.
Through veterinary workforce planning, education, training
exercises, and lessons learned, we can build national
resiliency, the ability to bend and not break. To effectively
recover and continue to feed our Nation will require a robust
and cohesive veterinary workforce.
My third recommendation, support the development of a
veterinary workforce that ensures recovery and builds national
resilience and protects our domestic food supply. We must
advance border screening programs, educational programs,
private sector risk reducing strategies, surveillance programs,
and the development of countermeasures for national security.
If our national veterinary workforce is not operating
effectively during a food, agricultural, or veterinary
catastrophic event, then our Nation is at risk of dependency on
a foreign food supply.
In closing, significant progress has been made, but we have
much more collaborative work to do.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify and I will
be happy to take any questions.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Dr. McGinn.
I have questions for the panel. This one is for Dr. McGinn
and Dr. Parker. It is clear to me that veterinarians play a
crucial role in our Nation's food security, public health, and
homeland security. What are the most significant risks if there
are not enough Federal veterinarians to respond to catastrophic
events such as foot and mouth disease or zoonotic disease
outbreaks? Dr. Parker.
Dr. Parker. Well, I think there is significant risk to our
Nation's security and public health unless we are able to
marshal some of the resources and begin to channel some of the
currently available veterinarians in the country that make
careers in public health, make careers in biomedical research,
and so forth more attractive and competitive compared to
elsewhere that they may go.
Within HHS, sometimes it is hard to just categorize and
count who actually falls in the veterinary roles because
veterinarians in our Department actually serve as scientists on
teams. And so sometimes it is not only the veterinarians, but
it is also the entire scientific team that we also have to
factor in as our critical workforce in addition to
veterinarians.
But veterinarians bring an extremely unique educational
experience and background and they have established themselves
as just critical components of a broader and larger applied
public health team. They have established themselves as a very
necessary component of the biomedical research and development
enterprise. And so, unless we are able to solve some of these
problems, we are going to be lacking in the necessary skill set
and unique background that they bring from the entire
enterprise, from basic research to advanced development,
procurement of medical countermeasures, and deployment of
countermeasures broadly to help our Nation respond to a
catastrophic event.
Senator Akaka. Thank you, Doctor. Dr. McGinn.
Dr. McGinn. I would just echo his comments and add that our
Nation's human health is at risk and our animal health is at
risk in those sorts of situations. He did an excellent job of
describing that.
In addition, our jobs are at risk. I mentioned one in six
jobs are in this food and agricultural area. In both of your
States, more than 10 percent of the workforce is in the
restaurant and the food service area and agriculture is No. 1
in Ohio in terms of its economic value. So the economy is also
at risk in terms of those sorts of things. So we don't want to
be in a position where we go through a catastrophic event and
we end up with a situation where we actually put this
infrastructure at risk and the impacts are such that we
actually are hurting these particular jobs and also being more
dependent on a foreign supply of food.
Senator Akaka. Thank you.
Ms. Kichak, in GAO's report, FSIS maintained that despite
its veterinarian shortage, the agency has been able to meet its
food safety and other responsibilities by redistributing the
workforce. However, the Office of Personnel Management's
memorandum approving direct hire authority government-wide for
Federal veterinary medical officers at the GS-11 through 15
levels referenced the severe shortage of Food Safety and
Inspection Service veterinarians. In your view, is there a
veterinarian shortage at FSIS that may adversely affect public
health or food safety if left unsolved?
Ms. Kichak. We based the direct hire authority, which is
given when you have a critical shortage of folks, on our
analysis of the vacant positions cited in the GAO report, the
movement of veterinarians out of that agency that we capture in
our central database. So we are not the experts in how many
veterinarians a department needs in order to complete their
mission. We rely on them for that analysis. But what we do know
is that they have not been filling the positions that they seek
to fill. That is how we made our determination.
Senator Akaka. Ms. Shames, the GAO report revealed that
several veterinarians working in slaughter plants said that
they were not always able to meet their responsibilities and
perform high-quality work because of inadequate staffing. Could
you please provide further information about how many FSIS
veterinarians brought this to your attention?
Ms. Shames. GAO actually visited several slaughterhouses,
so we were able to interview the veterinarians firsthand. They
told us directly, that it is very hard for them to meet not
only their food safety responsibilities, but also their
responsibilities regarding the humane handling and slaughter of
animals.
What the veterinarians told us is that there are shortages,
and pressures on their time to be able to meet these
responsibilities. What we know from the FSIS data is that for
the last decade, there have been high vacancy rates. They
haven't been able to meet their hiring goals. In some of the
districts, the vacancy rates have been as high as 35 percent.
Senator Akaka. Dr. Parker, according to the GAO report, a
2007 Food and Drug Administration Science Advisory Report
concluded that the Center for Veterinary Medicine was in a
state of crisis because of inadequate staffing, training, and
resources. What are your plans to work with this and other
component agencies to ensure that HHS's strategic workforce
plan better addresses your Department's challenges?
Dr. Parker. Well, first, and I think as you know from the
FDA's reply to that finding, there was some disagreement that
the Center for Veterinary Medicine is in a state of crisis with
regard to that 2007 report. That 2007 report looked at the
overall scientific workforce and not specifically the
veterinary workforce.
Nonetheless, in any event, there have been a lot of efforts
underway at FDA since then to improve recruitment of
veterinarians, to provide new training opportunities and
professional growth opportunities for the veterinarians that
they do attract. Although the FDA feels at the current time
their workforce of veterinarians is sufficient to meet the
current needs, I will be working with them very closely. And
they will be working with the Department very closely so we can
better anticipate what any future needs are going to be that
may expand beyond just the Center for Veterinary Medicine, but
also include the broader food safety and other missions in FDA
that support licensure of medical countermeasures necessary for
the emergency public health medical countermeasure enterprise.
I can do that, actually, through our Enterprise Governance
Board (EGB) that we have established to help us provide
strategic guidance to public health emergency matters. The EGB
includes my boss, the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and
Response (ASPR), the CDC Director, the NIH Director, and the
FDA Commissioner. One of the things that I am taking on to do
is making sure that as our operating divisions within HHS--as
you know, we are very decentralized--but through this executive
body, we can help ensure that the operating divisions most
pertinent to this mission are taking the workforce of the
veterinarians into consideration when they do their operating
division workforce analysis.
Senator Akaka. Thank you.
Let me ask Ms. Shames for any comments on HHS's response.
Ms. Shames. Yes. We quote explicitly from FDA's own Science
Advisory Board report that the Center for Veterinary Medicine
is in a state of crisis. That is the phrase that they used.
That group is responsible for the veterinarian medicine as well
as for the animal feed, so it is a very important mission. So
we don't mischaracterize. We don't exaggerate. We quoted
directly from their report.
Senator Akaka. Thank you. Senator Voinovich, your
questions?
Senator Voinovich. First of all, either you or some of your
predecessors didn't do a very good job during the last number
of years to deal with the human capital problem that we have.
Either reports that came out were inadequate so that the Office
of Personnel Management didn't know what the situation was, and
if they were and OPM didn't pay attention to them and should
have, then shame on OPM.
But it seems to me that OPM's job should be to look out
across the Federal Government and look at where you have crises
like we have today--this is a big crisis, this is probably one
of the biggest crises we have today in the Federal Government--
and to say to those people, take advantage of the direct hire
authority that we have and we will grant it for you. Or in the
alternative, the agencies themselves should have known about
the direct hire and said, we need the direct hire so that we
can go out and get the job done.
I don't really care about the past, but I want to know,
what are we going to do about the future? What are we going to
do about the future? If I ask you to come back here to this
Subcommittee, Senator Akaka and I, 6 months from now, what
would you all do to come back to tell us what it is that you
need to do in order to deal with this problem? Now, we are
going to have other witnesses from the private sector. What are
they going to do to help it? There is no question about it. We
need more veterinarians, don't we? For sure. All right. How do
we get them?
The next issue is, once they are there, how do we hire
them? You just talked about getting to GS-11, $49,000. If I go
to work for a university, I get at least $28,000 more money. If
I go to work for a pharmaceutical company, I can get as much as
$96,000 more than to come to work for the Federal Government. I
don't know what the retention rate here is. People come to work
for you. Probably another job comes along and they get out of
here. I would like for somebody to give me the retention rate
that you have of your veterinarians here.
So it seems to me the salary level is not competitive. I
don't know what happens over at the Office of Management and
Budget, but how many of your directors go over there and say,
hey, folks, we can't get the job done with this salary level.
We can't be competitive. Somebody ought to be looking at the
fact that you have got movement from one agency to another
because they pay more money in another agency than they do in
the other agency that they work at.
Tell me what you would all do to put something together, we
can come back in 6 months and let us know what is it that you
think needs to be done in order to deal with this problem,
short-term, middle-term, and long-term.
Senator Akaka. Dr. Parker.
Dr. Parker. Those are all excellent comments and really cut
to the heart of the matter. But if I may be so bold to at least
start off the conversation, to propose at least, as I have been
thinking about the problem and the dilemma, what may be more
longer-term solutions and rely, in fact, on maybe the
experience that helped me through my career and bring up a
model that I think has been extremely effective in recruiting,
training, providing educational opportunities, and channeling
the subspecialties needed in veterinary medicine to the
national security, homeland security needs, I will speak about
the programs that the military, specifically, and the Army, in
particular, had for such a long time. I think that is a model
program for successfully bringing in young graduates into the
Federal service.
What was critical about that program was the opportunity at
the time, at least in my experience, the Health Professions
Scholarship that defrayed the costs and expenses of veterinary
college but also began to target some of that early basic
training environment in veterinary college, that led me to
think about public service in veterinary college as opposed to
purely private practice.
That, then, coupled with the opportunity for more advanced
training, after you experienced your worth in Federal service
and in military service, for further advanced degree training
in a subspecialty, be it laboratory animal medicine, be it
comparative pathology, be it in my case physiology, a Ph.D.
degree program.
So that model coupled with a scholarship program for
veterinary college, work experience, advanced degree training,
yes, plus leadership training and other military-type
training--and that leadership training is critical--led to the
development of a pipeline and a career progression for a cohort
of professionals. And this is not only true or appropriate for
the veterinary corps, but it was also true and worked for the
rest of the health professions, in my case, in the Army Medical
Department.
Senator Voinovich. Excuse me. I am planning on introducing
legislation to provide additional scholarships to students in
exchange for public service. What I would like to do is I would
like to give you all copies of this legislation. I would like
you to look at it and tell me what you think is good and what
is bad and how we could do it better.
But the question that I would like to have is you say you
have a model. But what I would like to know, Ms. Shames, if
you, as a GAO person, who would you have in the room to get the
consensus of the folks about what needs to be done? I think the
private sector should also be in that room, but who would be in
that room to sit down and start to come back with these
recommendations?
Ms. Shames. Well, as a starting point, we feel that both
USDA and HHS should get a better understanding of what is going
on within their own departments. And so I think the first steps
should be the human capital officers from their component
agencies to clearly explain exactly what is going on in their
departments. We talked about FSIS, for example, as well as
FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine. Even though strategic
human capital management has been on GAO's High-Risk List since
2001, as has been noted, I have to say we were surprised that
at the department level they appear to be unaware of what was
going on in their own backyards.
Senator Voinovich. One of the reasons why we got the CHCO
Council and upgraded it and told all of the departments that
they ought to give human capital a larger priority and that it
should be part of their annual report to the Federal Government
was to elevate this thing, and I would be really interested,
who are the chief human capital officers? How many of them have
gone to the CHCO Council meetings?
Ms. Shames. Those are good questions, and I think as a
starting point, they need to get a basic understanding of what
the challenges are with their component agencies.
Senator Voinovich. So you would have representatives--just
a final note. Who would be at the table?
Ms. Shames. I would say their own members from their
component agencies. It certainly helps to get external views
from the other veterinarian stakeholders, certainly to try to
generate ideas with the academic community and private sector
would certainly help. I think generating ideas is always a good
thing, but as a starting point, you need to understand what the
challenges are within your----
Senator Voinovich. Which one of these agencies should
convene the meeting?
Ms. Shames. Well, I think OPM ought to be a catalyst with
all of this. We have talked for a long time that OPM has a
leadership responsibility, and between OPM and the departments,
there ought to be a shared responsibility of who is to do what.
That was another reason for GAO putting human capital on the
High-Risk List.
Senator Voinovich. Mr. Chairman, I am out of time, but I
would like to suggest that maybe we ask this group of people
here to start and come back to us maybe in a month or 2 months
with a plan of how people are going to get together and hear
from the folks who are really doing the work about how we go
about dealing with this problem so we have an idea they are
getting together, and then maybe set a date for them to come
back to us, say in 6 months, with a plan that is going to deal
with this, as I mentioned, on a short-term, middle-term, and
long-term basis.
Ms. Kichak. We do have a meeting scheduled for March 16. At
this time, we envisioned inviting every agency that employs
veterinarians at the component and agency-wide level. That is
March 16. That is scheduled. We had not intended to include
private sector people at that time, but we are reconsidering
that position.
Senator Voinovich. You are the boss, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Akaka. I am glad to hear that a meeting has been
set up. I agree with Senator Voinovich that we should have a
follow-up session with you and to see where you are maybe after
the March 16 meeting.
Senator Voinovich. Mr. Chairman, we may not even have to
have a hearing. Maybe we could just have them in your office
and have them come in and tell us what they are doing and then
say, come back to us in 6 months and then we will have a
hearing and tell us where we are going.
Senator Akaka. All right. Well, we will figure that one
out. Ms. Crumpacker.
Ms. Crumpacker. As far as the USDA, we accept what the
report says and we hear the message. You mentioned NRC and Mr.
McDermott has been a leader and he certainly is a model for us
to look at. We have separate agencies who have done a yeoman's
job to the extent they can with their assessments. What we need
to do at a department level is take those assessments and look
at them overall, and then recognizing that those are mission
critical occupations, they are tied directly to the mission of
our Department, how do we leverage resources across mission
areas? How does the Department provide leadership
departmentally rather than what we have done, which is
leadership for each mission area, working with OPM, but we need
to take it another step as you have written and as you have
said, to look at it as a USDA public service corps.
So that is what our commitment will be, and revamping our
HR Leadership Council of our highest-ranking HR officers in
each mission area, they are all just chomping at the bit,
basically, to be able to start working towards that issue. We
recognize we need to do something.
Senator Voinovich. Good. Thanks, Senator Akaka.
Senator Akaka. There is no question that our Federal
Government is facing a huge challenge, not only for
veterinarians but throughout the system, and this is where I
look at OPM and want to ask that question. What are we doing to
deal with the vacancies that will come to the Federal
Government in a few years, when many of our Federal workers
will be retiring? Will we have the workforce to operate our
government?
So we need to really seriously get to this, and Senator
Voinovich is a champion of this. We are going to be looking at
this to see how, if we need to, we can try to bring together
the different agencies and departments to deal with this,
because we really have to find answers. It is not only for me.
It is not only the economic crisis; it is also going to be a
crisis of personnel in the government.
What are we doing about it? I think we really need to take
steps to begin to deal with this.
Let me move on to another area of all of this. A pandemic
outbreak would stress the capacity of Federal veterinarians,
public health professionals, and others, and would require an
integrated response across all levels of government and with
the private sector, as well. I have long been concerned that
our Nation is not prepared adequately for a pandemic and I have
held a series of hearings on this issue.
What are Federal veterinarians doing to prepare for the
coordinated response that would be needed during a pandemic or
widespread animal disease outbreak, and what more should be
done?
Dr. Parker. I will go ahead and start, if you would like.
First, thank you for bringing this issue up. I just want to
first say I believe that one of our growing threats that we
have is complacency that, in fact, this is a real threat, and
it is a real threat. But that aside, there has been tremendous
work done over the last several years in pandemic preparedness
planning, whether that be in the R&D phase, the development of
new and better medical countermeasures, such as pre-pandemic,
pandemic vaccines, antivirals, stockpiles of antivirals, and
then the planning activities necessary to distribute and
dispense these medical countermeasures in the event of a
sustained human transmission of H5N1 or another virus like
that.
Veterinarians, at least in HHS, play a key role on every
component and phase of that enterprise I just described. They
are critical members of that public health team, from research
to deployment, platforms of public health assistance to State
and local authorities.
But there continues to be a lot to do, a lot of issues to
work out. This is, planning and preparedness is always dynamic.
And the more planning and exercises that we do--you dig deeper
into the onion and new issues arise, such as how do we do risk-
based border screening? So we are really getting down to some
of the details of how we might do this and how we might deploy
not only Federal folks, but to work most importantly in an
integrated fashion nationally. We are defining better what are
our Federal responsibilities, what are our State
responsibilities, what are our local responsibilities, what are
our private sector responsibilities, and most important, what
are our responsibilities as individuals and families, as well.
Senator Akaka. Dr. McGinn, would you comment on this
question, too?
Dr. McGinn. Obviously, a pandemic would result in a greatly
limited workforce, so it makes it more essential that we are
then coordinated more effectively. DHS is working that
coordinated role across all the different departments and with
the State, the local, and the private sector, as well.
Being able to actually build that ability to coordinate
requires that we get down to the place where we delineate
exactly what are the tasks that are necessary to be done by
each, Federal, State, local, Tribal, and the private sector.
The private sector contribution is huge in a greatly limited
workforce situation. So being able to understand the
contribution of the private veterinarian--what USDA has done
with the private veterinarians in developing a cadre of
veterinarians to do that. HHS also has some private veterinary
capability, as well, but you will hear from the AVMA and some
of what they have done, the State Animal Response Teams. Being
able to understand and delineate exactly what each one of these
private sector contributions to the veterinary workforce can be
then helps us better understand what we need the Federal
veterinarians to do, as well.
Veterinarians work that interface between the human and
animal and the environmental, so we understand that if we can
prevent a pandemic by getting out there around the world and
working with the current avian influenza-type situations, then
we are also doing what we can do to prevent and respond to
these sorts of catastrophic events, as well.
Senator Akaka. Thank you. Senator Voinovich, any more
questions for this panel?
Senator Voinovich. No, I haven't any. Has the vote started
yet? I have no other questions, and maybe we can get the other
witnesses to have a chance, unless you have more questions, Mr.
Chairman.
Senator Akaka. All right. Well, I have further questions,
but I will submit them for the record.
I want to thank all of you on the first panel. You can see
how important this question is to our country and the need to
get together, get the information correct, but more
importantly, to begin to build programs so that we can deal
with these vacancies, not only for veterinarians but for many
other positions in the Federal Government. So I want to thank
you. Senator Voinovich and I will be thinking of you, and don't
be surprised when you get a call from us. Thank you very much
to the first panel.
Let me advise the second panel that we will take a recess.
We will take this vote and then we will be back. When we are
done with the votes, we will be back. This hearing is recessed.
[Recess.]
Senator Akaka. The hearing of this Subcommittee will come
to order.
I want to welcome the second panel of witnesses: Dr. Ron
DeHaven, Chief Executive Officer, American Veterinary Medical
Association; Dr. Gilsdorf, Executive Vice President of the
National Association of Federal Veterinarians; and Dr.
Pappaioanou, Executive Director, Association of American
Veterinary Medical Colleges.
You may know that it is the custom of this Subcommittee to
swear in all witnesses and I would ask all of you to please
stand and raise your right hand.
Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to
give this Subcommittee is the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth, so help you, God?
Dr. DeHaven. I do.
Dr. Gilsdorf. I do.
Dr. Pappaioanou. I do.
Senator Akaka. Thank you. Please be seated. Let the record
note that our witnesses answered in the affirmative.
Also, before we start, I want you to know that your full
written statements will be made a part of the record. I would
also like to remind you to keep your remarks brief, given the
number of people testifying this afternoon, as well.
So with that, Dr. DeHaven, will you please proceed with
your statement?
TESTIMONY OF W. RON DEHAVEN, DVM, MBA,\1\ CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER, AMERICAN VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
Dr. DeHaven. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Members of the
Subcommittee. I am Dr. Ron DeHaven, Chief Executive Officer of
the American Veterinary Medical Association. I really
appreciate the opportunity to testify before you today on the
state of our Nation's veterinary workforce.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The prepared statement of Dr. DeHaven appears in the Appendix
on page 80.
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While the general public often associates veterinarians
with the care of their pets, this report highlights the
critical role of veterinarians to protect the health of our
livestock, the safety of our food, and ultimately the health of
our public. The AVMA is pleased to have the report confirm our
long-held concerns about the widespread shortage of food supply
veterinarians. Population growth and growing dependence on
animal protein will continue to put increased demands on our
food supply system and on those veterinarians who are
responsible for its security, safety, and quality.
Unfortunately, there are simply not enough veterinarians to
meet this demand and the causes of the shortage are many and
they are complex. The 28 accredited veterinary colleges in the
United States graduate about 2,600 veterinarians each year, and
that number has remained relatively stagnant for about two
decades. This lack of growth in veterinary graduates is not due
to a lack of applicants. To the contrary, our veterinary
schools are operating at full capacity with qualified
applicants outnumbering the number of seats by a number of
three-to-one.
AVMA shares concerns expressed in the report about the
inadequate level of pay for Federal veterinarians. Multiple
Federal agencies cited noncompetitive salaries as an issue
relative to recruiting and retaining qualified veterinarians.
Educational debt is also playing a role in this shortage. The
National Veterinary Medical Services Act exchanges debt relief
for commitments of service. This legislation was passed in
2003. However, no benefits have been realized due to
limitations in funding, delays in implementation, and the fact
that the loan payments will be taxable income. As it stands
today, about 46 veterinarians could benefit from the program.
If payments under this program were made tax-exempt, the number
of participants would increase to 75.
Although many veterinarians benefiting from a robust loan
repayment program might ultimately find their way to work in
the private sector, these would be the same veterinarians who
are often called upon into action by Federal and State agencies
during large animal health disease outbreaks. An increase in
the numbers would not only improve our ability to fulfill daily
responsibilities to animal and human health, it would also add
to the existing National Animal Health Emergency Response Corps
and thereby help the government in the event of an animal
disease emergency or a natural disaster.
Mr. Chairman, we are all keenly aware that these are
especially tough economic times for our country, but as the old
adage goes, we can pay now or we can pay later, and if we
choose the latter, the cost will be exponentially higher. The
cost of expanding our veterinary schools providing debt relief
to our graduating veterinarians and increasing the salaries of
Federal veterinarians pales in comparison to the potentially
huge costs associated with animal and human disease outbreaks.
In conclusion, the findings of the GAO report present us
with significant challenges and opportunities. I am confident
that by working together, we can address these challenges,
welcome many more bright minds into the veterinary profession,
and provide our citizens the level of food safety and security
that they expect and deserve.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Akaka. Thank you for your statement. Dr. Gilsdorf,
please proceed with your statement.
TESTIMONY OF MICHAEL GILSDORF, DVM,\1\ EXECUTIVE VICE
PRESIDENT, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FEDERAL VETERINARIANS
Dr. Gilsdorf. Mr. Chairman and Subcommittee Members, thank
you for holding this important hearing on the Federal
veterinary workforce.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The prepared statement of Dr. Gilsdorf with an attachment
appears in the Appendix on page 88.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
As you know, veterinarians are a small but vital part of
the Federal workforce. Out of the 78,000 veterinarians working
in the United States, only 3,016 work for the Federal
Government. They are educated and trained in a complex array of
scientific and medical disciplines. Their training makes them
uniquely qualified, more than any other health profession in
the Federal Government, to protect America's animal agriculture
and wildlife and to protect humans from zoonotic and foodborne
diseases. In fact, when it comes to ensuring food safety,
humane animal care, preventing animal disease incursions, and
managing animal and zoonotic diseases, it is the Federal
veterinarian who is on the front line.
Because of increased food safety and bioterrorism issues,
Federal agencies need a more robust veterinary workforce that
is highly skilled and ready to serve, both under normal
circumstances and in catastrophic events. At the present time,
there are not enough veterinarians to adequately respond to the
Nation's needs. In fact, Federal managers have personally
shared with me their difficulties in filling the existing
vacancies as well as their fears about the inability to fill
future vacancies. The current and future shortages of
veterinarians are exacerbated by the fact that there will be
more jobs in all areas of veterinary medicine than there are
veterinarians to fill them.
The NAFV agrees with the GAO that a government-wide
assessment is necessary to determine how many veterinarians are
needed. We further recommend that steps be taken to
dramatically improve the compensation package for Federal
veterinarians, which would include more effective and equitable
incentives.
Not only must salaries be more competitive, but
professional development, continuing educational opportunities,
and assistance in obtaining advanced degrees is also needed.
The average salary of the Federal veterinarian is $37,000 less
than those veterinarians who own their practice. The average
difference is even greater when compared with the salaries
earned by those working in academia and industry.
Federal veterinarians are also not paid at the same level
as other Federal medical personnel. Physicians and dentists and
nurses are eligible for and receive special pay above and
beyond their base salaries. Most Federal agencies do not have
the statutory authority that provides the same special salaries
for Federal veterinarians, so as you had asked the previous
group, as far as I am concerned, changing the U.S. Code to put
in specialty pay for veterinarians would be one step that could
be taken.
These special statutory authorities are needed for
veterinarians. All Federal medical personnel, including
veterinarians, provide essential medical services to sustain
and improve the public and human health and therefore should be
compensated equitably. If the Federal agencies do not do this,
then I foresee that they will continue to face challenges in
recruiting and retaining adequate numbers in the Federal
workforce.
Mr. Chairman, on behalf of the NAFV, I appreciate the
attention that is being given to this issue and your help in
improving incentives to recruit and retain Federal
veterinarians. It is our sincere desire that these important
challenges be remedied in a timely fashion. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Dr. Gilsdorf. And now
we will hear from Dr. Pappaioanou. Will you please begin.
TESTIMONY OF MARGUERITE PAPPAIOANOU, DVM, MPVM, PH.D., DIP
ACVPM,\1\ EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN
VETERINARY MEDICAL COLLEGES
Dr. Pappaioanou. Good afternoon, Chairman Akaka. I am
Marguerite Pappaioanou, a retired veterinary commissioned
officer of the U.S. Public Health Service and Executive
Director of the Association of American Veterinary Medical
Colleges, which represents all 28 colleges of veterinary
medicine in the United States, along with several U.S.
departments of veterinary science and comparative medicine.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The prepared statement of Dr. Pappaioanou appears in the
Appendix on page 99.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
A national veterinarian workforce shortage is impacting the
numbers of veterinarians going into the Federal workforce. The
number of U.S. veterinary colleges and graduating class size
has not changed for over 25 years, save for a single school in
California that was established in the 1990s, despite an
increase in our country's population of approximately 78
million people. Our 28 colleges, located in 26 States, are a
national resource worthy of Federal investment as their
collective 2,600 graduates per year benefit our entire U.S.
population across all 50 States and Territories.
Our colleges understand the need to produce more
veterinarians and stand ready to begin to address this need.
For several years, however, we have been advocating for Federal
resources to complement State funding that would permit our
colleges to increase their class size substantially. With
approximately 6,000 students applying each year, we do have
extremely bright, qualified students to fill bigger class
sizes.
Program-wise, 22 of our 28 colleges offer programs and/or
joint degrees in public health. Every other year, we take 300
to 400 enthusiastic students to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention to learn about disease outbreaks and careers in
public health. Each summer, with industry and NIH, 300
veterinary students conduct biomedical research projects and
learn about careers in biomedical research. Also each year,
USDA supports veterinary students to travel to Plum Island to
learn about foreign animal diseases and their prevention and
control.
Despite this great interest by our veterinary medical
students in these areas and in these programs, the Federal
Government loses them to private clinical practice, industry,
and academia, where the salaries are much higher. We ask that
Congress take the following actions to address the workforce
shortage.
First, ensure the GAO's recommendations are implemented
fully, by including a regular assessment of the adequacy of the
veterinary medical workforce.
Second, provide funds for the construction of educational
facilities at our colleges that will enable them to increase
class sizes. Students are standing out in the hallways. There
is just not enough room in the current facilities to increase
class size.
Third, appropriate greater levels of funding for tax-exempt
awards under the National Veterinary Medical Services Act of
2003 for loan repayment.
Fourth, provide funds for scholarships to veterinary
students pursuing public health or advanced research degrees
and to ensure that these programs for graduate research degrees
are available to veterinarians. Often, they are restricted to
M.D.s.
And last, ensure that Federal positions, personnel system
grades, and salaries are at levels comparable to what
veterinarians are earning in private clinical practice,
industry, and academia, along with closing the gap between what
veterinarians make and that of our other medical colleagues.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for this opportunity to
visit today. I can assure you that the veterinary medical
colleges in the United States stand ready to work with Congress
and other partners to begin to address this workforce shortage.
Thank you.
Senator Akaka. Thank you for your statement, Dr.
Pappaioanou.
Dr. DeHaven, in your testimony, you stated that this
country is facing a crisis if we do not act and bolster our
veterinary forces. Will you please describe the potential
crisis you foresee?
Dr. DeHaven. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the question. I
think that crisis could take a number of forms. In my previous
capacity, I was the Administrator of the Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service, and so had largely primary
responsibility for the response if there were a major animal
disease outbreak.
We estimated at the time that if there were an accidental
introduction of foot and mouth disease in the United States,
the cost would begin at $5 billion, and that would be if we
were able to identify, contain, and eradicate the disease
within 72 hours, and those numbers go up exponentially with
every day and week and month that it would take us to contain
and eradicate a disease outbreak such as that. In fact, our
very economy could be held hostage to that kind of disease
outbreak.
It all depends on how quickly we are able to identify and
respond to that outbreak, and that really gets down to the
focal point, and that is the veterinary expertise, whether it
is the laboratory diagnostician, the people in the field to
quarantine and deal with the infected herds, and all of the
associated activities. It all revolves around veterinarians.
Senator Akaka. Dr. Gilsdorf, you stated in your testimony
that due to the existing veterinarian shortages, many Federal
veterinarians are working up to 12 hours per day and may serve
on emergency disease outbreak task forces for long periods of
time, putting tremendous stress on their family lives. Which
agencies are affected most by this challenge, and what impact
might this have on public health?
Dr. Gilsdorf. The agencies most affected by this would be
APHIS Veterinary Services and FSIS.
As far as the impact on public health, we have situations,
first of all, in FSIS, and it is stated in the GAO report,
where veterinarians are working essentially three jobs, for
three veterinarians, because they cannot fill those jobs. So
they have the veterinarian driving from one plant to another,
trying to keep up with the workload, and they are working long
hours in order to do that. Now, you do have inspectors on the
line and you do have consumer safety inspectors and so forth,
but you do not have the veterinarian there as they should be to
oversee what is going on on a constant basis.
So I feel that is a problem. I think those veterinarians
need to be there and do one job at a time and not try to do
three at a time. I just don't see how they can effectively
manage those situations for long periods of time, and that is
the biggest problem. These situations are occuring for long
periods of time. These veterinarians just can't continue to
perform well for that long period of time. That is why you are
seeing veterinarians leaving FSIS, going to APHIS or going to
other places. This doesn't occur in all districts within FSIS,
but it does occur a lot more than it should.
Within APHIS Veterinary Service activities, veterinarians
work with disease eradication programs. I retired from APHIS. I
worked there for 33 years, and I was in charge of all the
domestic programs at the staff level. These veterinarians work
with disease eradication programs, and zoonotic disease
eradication programs, such as avian influenza and tuberculosis.
In those situations, those veterinarians, especially if
they are called to work on disease eradication task forces,
have to stop testing cattle for program diseases and work on an
avian influenza or other disease task forces. It is not that
those animals are going to be a public health threat because
they are under quarantine, that is not a public health problem
at that point. The issue of concern is that there might be more
disease spread within the herd, and if any animals get out of
the herd, then they could spread it to other herds over that
extended length of time. I am not aware of that happening, but
that is a potential problem in not continually working with
those herds as they should be.
Now, we have also had tuberculosis task forces in
California and New Mexico where large numbers of veterinarians
are there and are working long hours. In fact, I was told by
one of our members that they tested 16,000 cows in one day on
one dairy in the last couple of months. These veterinarians are
really working hard to get the task force work completed so
they can get back to their regular jobs.
But the fact remains, there are not enough veterinarians in
the agency to do the work. But again, when those veterinarians
go on these task forces, it often strains the family relations
because they are gone for such long periods of time and their
spouse has to take care of the family, do all the chores, and
so forth. And then, when the veterinarian gets back to their
regular job, their workload in their regular job is backed up,
so now they have to work harder on their regular job in order
to catch up. So it does put a strain on their family life.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Doctor, for your
statement.
Let me ask Dr. Pappaioanou, during the 110th Congress, I
cosponsored the Veterinary Public Health Workforce Expansion
Act, introduced by Senator Wayne Allard. This bill would have
created a competitive grant program that would have supported
construction costs at veterinary schools. Although the Higher
Education Opportunity Act of 2008 created a competitive grant
program that included many of the provisions of the Public
Health Workforce Expansion Act, it did not allow the funding of
significant construction.
To what extent would a grant program that supports needed
construction costs help increase the number of veterinarians
focused on public health-related matters?
Dr. Pappaioanou. Senator, that would be the No. 1 thing
that the government could do that would enable our colleges to
respond. They are ready, and they have been advocating for that
legislation and we thank you so much for your support on that.
We were very grateful, of course, for the Higher Education
Opportunity Act that passed for the other resources that were
made available, but when the funds for the construction were
taken out, that just, again, stopped the ability of the
colleges to increase class size. Many of them have class sizes
of somewhere around 70, 80, 100 students per class and are
poised to go to 150 or 200 students, but it is not just simply
lecture halls, although that is also a need, but it is teaching
anatomy and pathology, and so very specialized facilities that
are needed that if you add a substantial number of students
into the class, that construction is absolutely at the core of
the matter. This would be the No. 1 assist that the Federal
Government could give that could really allow our colleges to
increase those class sizes.
We would be very willing to work with HHS, with Congress. I
guess a comment that often has come up with the increasing
class size is how will the colleges assure that the
veterinarians, or that the new students coming in will go to
these areas of need rather than to go into private practice or
the other areas that they are gravitating towards and the
colleges have put into place programs for recruitment and
special training and mentoring and we are very willing, as I
mentioned, to work with HHS and Congress to assure that
increases that are achieved will find their way into these
workforce shortage areas.
Senator Akaka. I want to ask each of you to think of three
recommendations that would strengthening the Federal
veterinarian workforce. I want you to be as specific as you
can, coming from your area of jurisdiction and your expertise.
If you would offer your three top recommendations for
strengthening the Federal veterinarian workforce, I would
certainly like to hear it now, beginning with Dr. DeHaven.
Dr. DeHaven. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think we have many
of the mechanisms in place already to do some of the work that
is necessary to increase that workforce. The National
Veterinary Medical Service Act, if we had implementing
regulations in place that would allow for student debt
repayment for those graduates that would go into a food animal
practice, particularly into a remote area, would go a long way
towards addressing that problem. If we can make those payments
tax-exempt, we can increase by at least a third the number of
participants who can benefit from that program. So I think that
would be one incentive, one potential fix. Granted, many of
those graduates will go into private practice, but in the event
of an animal health emergency, those are the same people that
help the government respond.
The Veterinary Public Health Workforce Expansion Act that
Dr. Pappaioanou just mentioned will also go a long way,
increasing capacity at the veterinary schools, but not just
increasing capacity for the sake of increasing the numbers but
making sure that those students going into the schools, the
additional students would go into the shortage areas--public
health, food supply, veterinary medicine, laboratory animal
medicine, and some of the critical shortage areas that really
add to the veterinary food supply workforce.
And then potentially some scholarship programs. We heard in
the first panel programs at the military that, in essence, pay
the entire cost associated with a veterinary degree in return
for a time commitment to be in the military. That same kind of
program, scholarship program, given the student debt that our
veterinary graduates are coming out of school with, would go a
long way to incentivize students to go into these critical
shortage areas, again, particularly in the food supply,
veterinary medicine arena.
So I think, Mr. Chairman, those are three areas that would
go a long way towards addressing this problem.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much for that. Dr. Gilsdorf,
your three recommendations, please.
Dr. Gilsdorf. OK. Well, I would agree with Dr. DeHaven's
suggestions and recommendations. I would add the No. 1 issue
that I think would bring more veterinarians into the government
and help us retain more veterinarians and even encourage fewer
veterinarians to retire early is salary. There is just not an
equity in salary at this point, as I have already pointed out
earlier.
The biggest problem with that is the veterinarians do not
have the opportunity to get special pay, which other medical
personnel in the government receive. And so if the statutory
authorities could be obtained and the funding, of course, that
would really encourage them to stay on board.
For example, there are two specialty pays the Army offers
right now. One is board certification, but board certification
is not something that is offered in all the Federal agencies.
In other agencies, people that are board certified do not get
recognition.
In addition to that, the military veterinarians get one
other specialty pay and that is $100 a month for being a
veterinarian in the military. That has not changed since the
mid-1950s or before. Whereas other medical personnel had
started at that level, but now receive up to $1,000 or $1,200 a
month. There is a discrepancy there and I don't know why, but I
do know the military veterinarians that I have talked with feel
this is a big issue and that if this issue that could be taken
care of and it would entice them to stay longer in the
military.
But again, those are two specialty pays that are already in
place only in the military and not in other Federal agencies,
except at Health and Human Services within NIH. HHS has some
authorities within a small section of that agency to pay
veterinarians specialty pay. That is less than 2 percent of the
veterinary workforce. The majority of the agencies do not have
the authority to pay special pay to veterinarians.
The next suggestion would be professional development, and
that includes everything from training courses in leadership to
continuing education. A lot of our veterinarians want to
maintain their State licenses so that they keep up with new
technology, what is new in veterinary medicine, this requires
continuing education every year, depending on the State, up to
20 to 40 hours per year. Many veterinarians want to continue
maintaining their license. However, in agencies like FSIS, the
veterinarians duties are already stretched so far that the
agency can't allow them to attend training courses because they
don't have anyone to replace them. Therefore, they don't get
those professional development opportunities.
A lot of our veterinarians would also like to get advanced
degrees and try to use those within the government to help
advance the government. A lot of those opportunities are not
there.
And the last suggestion I have for increasing the Federal
workforce is to look at hiring private veterinarians in some
capacity. I know there are different efforts that are on board
right now, but I think they need to be enhanced and
strengthened. Thank you.
Senator Akaka. Thank you for your more than three
recommendations.
Now, may I ask Dr. Pappaioanou for your three
recommendations?
Dr. Pappaioanou. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Well, as we have
discussed before, our first recommendation would be passage of
the National Veterinary Medical Services Expansion Act to
provide Federal funding for the construction of facilities that
would allow our colleges to increase class sizes substantially.
The second would be really looking at the student debt area
of loan repayment programs and increasing the appropriation for
the National Veterinary Medical Services Act of 2003 and making
those awards tax exempt, and then on the other side, to provide
scholarships for veterinarians now to go into areas of public
health and advanced research degrees.
When I am often out talking with our veterinary students
about this, they want to go after degrees in public health. But
when they are looking at an average debt load of $120,000 with
a 4-year veterinary program, staying that additional year to
incur an additional $35,000 or $50,000 of debt that it would
take for an MPH and then--and I will get to the last point--
they are wondering about the salaries and the jobs that they
might end up in, it stops them from pursuing this option. That
is a major challenge.
So definitely debt repayment and scholarships. And often
the programs that are developed for research degrees are aimed
at physicians. I can't tell you how many programs are
advertized or posted, and as a veterinarian, you are all
excited. You are looking at it and you think, boy, that is
great, and then you see it is for physicians only. It happens
all the time. So anything we can do to encourage HHS and USDA,
any government program that is providing funding for advanced
research degrees to include veterinary medical personnel as
able to compete for and obtain that funding would be important.
Last, education is not going to do it alone. Often, the
question comes up by our students considering these areas, but
what jobs are out there? We are not hearing about the jobs. We
see job descriptions and they are for physicians. They are for
nurses. They don't say veterinarian, even though the jobs are
those that veterinarians can do and actually do bring their
special expertise to, such as Dr. Parker mentioned in his
testimony. So there is no question but that making it clear
what the jobs are, their salary, the incentive pay, retention,
all of those things need to be sufficant and clear, so that the
students see the opportunity.
The interest is there. As I say, we have hundreds of
students who go to CDC, who are doing research projects. It is
phenomenal. But somehow between those programs and the time
they leave, we have lost them, and so the job opportunities
can't be overemphasized in terms of getting them in.
And then I would also just like to support Dr. Gilsdorf's
point on retention. To make this very real, and I will mention
just a personal example, as I left the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, where I worked for 21 years, my
counterparts, those peers who were physicians, were making
$50,000 a year more than me on three and four and five special
pays. The only difference in our training really was the M.D.
and the DVM and the training was comparable. Research--too, I
had more degrees than many of them did, and actually, there
were junior people who worked for me that didn't have graduate
degrees, didn't have 20 years of experience, hadn't done
research, no publications, compared to my resume, and they were
making $30,000 a year more than me.
Now, I got to 20 years, which is when I could retire, and I
did. So the retention part of it didn't work very well for me.
Now, maybe CDC would say, well, we are glad that she left
anyway. I humbly offer this as just one example that the
numbers are very real and they really do matter greatly, not
only in terms of getting people to come in, but also to stay.
Thank you.
Senator Akaka. Well, thank you very much, all three of you,
and Dr. Pappaioanou for your recommendations, as well.
I would like to thank all of you again. You have addressed
many of the most pressing workforce challenges facing Federal
veterinarians. You also have provided many valuable
recommendations to ensure that this vital workforce can meet
its missions to support food safety, public health, and
homeland security. You pointed out the important role that a
veterinarian plays in this.
I would like to emphasize once again that we need to take a
strategic approach to resolving these critical issues, and that
is our motive here. This involves making proactive, interagency
cooperation to address workforce challenge, the rule and not
the exception.
The hearing record will be open for 1 week for additional
statements or questions from other Members of this
Subcommittee.
But again, I want to tell you, you have been helpful, and
we know there is a crisis out there and we have to move as
quickly as we can to bring these ideas together and to begin to
deal with this crisis. You have offered many good
recommendations that we will certainly consider. I look forward
to maybe pulling all of you together again to see where we are
in a few months, and the reason for this is to see that we mean
business and we want to try to deal with this problem that we
are facing.
So with that, thank you again so much. This hearing is
adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 5:08 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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