and then scientists, deborah swak hammer went to capitol hill exa exactly as she promised she would, and delivered her testimony despite that pressure. joining us tonight is deb dra swak hammer, chair of the e palomino, a board of counselors, professor of environmental health sciences at the university of minnesota. professor, thank you very much for being here. very much appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. >> you are currently chair of the board of scientific counselors at the epa. >> that is correct. >> what is the role of that board? >> this board reports to the assistant to the administer of research and development at epa and we guide the assistant administrator in the research that's done internally at epa. >> okay. >> so, it's all about just what is going on at epa. we deent deal with regulations, we don't deal with policy. we are dealing with kind of the basic science that is going into eventually maybe to support regulations, but it's -- we're overseeing that science. giving advice is it the right science, are they doing it with the best methodology, is it the gold sta