with regards to the fta, i think the board needs to be aware the fta [inaudible] about the ridership of the extension moving forward. and we have multiple problems the high speed rail authority will not come to the transit centers any time soonful caltrain instead of 8 are prosecute posing to run 4llow the extension and the [inaudible] we need to realize that our strategic per inships on the high speed rail authority well is nothing special that they have coming in the terminal does not have to be the california high speed rail authority. caltrain -- [inaudible]. brought this up before. you set your destination [inaudible]. google with [inaudible] tell you to take bart [inaudible] and take a bus. that is a problem that needs to be addressed the reason why people taking bart instead of [inaudible] to go to san francisco. and last but not least we have to [inaudible] rep with [inaudible]. because thank you. caller your 2 minutes has stopped. thank you. all right. no other public comment online. chair gee. thank you. next item. >> great. directors item 11 is presentation of downtown rai

as part of that, we had a second a day workshop with fta and our funding partners. really evaluate how we perform. while it was not specific to the individual, many of the topic basically covered the inner working of the very different groups. and i don't necessarily want to go through all the details but these are key because they're using these as guidelines and will publish, i believe they already published a lesson for future projects going forward including the downtown extension that is on board in san francisco but also the san jose extension. and these items, changed management process, especially contractor performing path work and project control and capabilities, these are all important and crucial to basic controlling costs to schedule. so this is very important so there is a write-up i can share with the committee if the committee is interested. oh the findings of what we did well and what we didn't do well and how we can integrate. and part of this has to do with basically policy decision that needs to be made beyond, you know, even the agency level wi

is a huge — but this fta development is a huge benefit to women who want to access — huge benefit toink, congresswoman, about - pill. and what do you think, - congresswoman, about abortion being used as an issue in the annual defence policy bill? i think it is outrageous that republicans are taking a pill that— republicans are taking a pill that is— republicans are taking a pill that is so critically important to our— that is so critically important to our national defence, to our service — to our national defence, to our service members, and trying to use this — service members, and trying to use this as— service members, and trying to use this as a culture war vehicle _ use this as a culture war vehicle. we should be passing the end — vehicle. we should be passing the end without any of these culture — the end without any of these culture war issues, —— the ndaa~ _ culture war issues, —— the ndaa. let's leave that aside and lets— ndaa. let's leave that aside and let's do what we need to do to keep — and let's do what we need to do to keep our country safe. in other news, a new repo

key questions we face in particular with respect to countries like chile, which again we do have an ftahow do we build a vibrant relationship around critical minerals,, recognizing that ultimately the success of our clean energy investments here at putting a a consumer around te clean energy transition, around dves is going to be incumbent upon building secure stable sources of supply to feed those industries. countries like chile have to and need to be a critical part of how we do that come recognizing that the needs are so great that domestic sources of those materials are never going to be enough to really feed where the industry need to go in the u.s. >> i would love to go on but i know you to get back to the white house. we are now at 10:45 but i do before the close want to get a chance to offer any final thoughts are remarks that i'm sorry were not able to get to all the questions. i know folks have. >> i think the last thing i would say is, i will say i'm struck regularly by the two things that i sometimes hear in the conversation. one is a kind of sense that relative to the past

as part of that, we had a second a day workshop with fta and our funding partners. really evaluate how we perform. while it was not specific to the individual, many of the topic basically covered the inner working of the very different groups. and i don't necessarily want to go through all the details but these are key because they're using these as guidelines and will publish, i believe they already published a lesson for future projects going forward including the downtown extension that is on board in san francisco but also the san jose extension. and these items, changed management process, especially contractor performing path work and project control and capabilities, these are all important and crucial to basic controlling costs to schedule. so this is very important so there is a write-up i can share with the committee if the committee is interested. oh the findings of what we did well and what we didn't do well and how we can integrate. and part of this has to do with basically policy decision that needs to be made beyond, you know, even the agency level wi

issues that disrupted supply, for which manufacturers of drugs and -- apis are required to notify the fta. the agency relied on these notifications to help prevent supply disruptions by working closely with manufacturers, expediting review and exercising temporary regulatory flexibility. however, we have recently seen unprecedented demand for drugs that would benefit from similar notification. the ability to require drug manufacturers and distributors to report surges in demand to fda could help the agency to prevent or mitigate shortages, including for some critical over the counter drugs like we saw in the fall. additional improvements should include reporting api sources and the extent of manufacture reliance on certain suppliers in the drug supply chain, and then join fda has opportunity to inspect certain over the counter drug facilities before such products are distributed. roducts arpreventing food shorts also critical to public health, and we are grateful to congress for including a provision and the fy 23 omnibus to require manufacturers of infant formulas and medical foods to no

we are hoping to get it through the senate, but this fta development is a huge benefit to women who wantl. and what do you think, congresswoman, about abortion being used as an issue in the annual defence policy bill? i think it is outrageous that republicans are taking a bill that is so critically important to our national defence, to our service members, and trying to use this as a culture war vehicle. we should be passing the ndaa without any of these culture war issues. let's leave that aside and let's do what we need to do to keep our country safe. us officials are downplaying recent comments critical of the israeli government, ahead of next week's visit by israel's president isaac herzog. tensions have risen between the two countries with president biden saying in a recent cnn interview that some members of the israeli government are "some of the most extreme" he has ever seen. on wednesday, a us state department spokesman refuted a new york times opinion column titled, the us re—assessment of netanyahu's government has begun. our middle east correspondent tom bateman has more. wel

there is real value in constantly trying to find ways we can limits the red tape, especially in the fta. i think there's endless work to be done. thank you all for your public service. >> thank you, senator hickenlooper, that is our last questionnaire. we thank the panelists very much for being with us today. now we will hear from her next panel. >> >> let's convene our second panel. we think our panelists for being here and sitting through the first panel. before i introduce our panelists, let me just say a few words. i think that sometimes it is important to take a 30,000 foot look at the symptoms of the best systems under which we live. we do not do this often enough. we go crisis by crisis. in my view, we are living with a health care system which is broken and which is dysfunctional. we spend twice as much per capita on health care as any other country on earth. $13,000 every year which is unsustainable. yet, despite that, 85 million americans are uninsured or underinsured. we are seeing in many parts of this country, unbelievably, above and beyond covid, and decline in our life ex

fema is like 5000, 6000 ftas. it is not an army. i love them. its capacity is they know everyone else in the federal government. any, helicopters in or people that -- so have a sense of what those resources are. so your demands can be specific to what they presently have. we'll have regional human heads who are going to have a sense of what's going on the other states as well so get a sense of the numbers and your expectations with also be set. >> pedram. >>, festival after committee about the amount of information and knowledge that you have, you see something about not having experience so it is all hard to react to everything you've told us. one thing and i will try to be brief. one thing that is very hard for me to handle is dealing with communities that are located where they shouldn't be. meaning and plot area are to coast to coast and you cannot start extra predating all over the place. if they have a title, some of that even how title that's a safety issue. that's hard. fema is doing a couple of things that i think incentivize those cons

that's why this really needs to be looked at by both government and the fta, because i think the bankingperson regulation.— person regulation. thank you very much for sharing _ person regulation. thank you very much for sharing your _ person regulation. thank you very much for sharing your perspective j much for sharing your perspective perspective. in this story, the bbc contacted the bank —— the bbc contacted monzo bank about gina miller's case, it said it didn't allow accounts to be opened by political parties and it had made a mistake in allowing the "true and fair" party to use its services. now to ukraine — where the military says its forces are making steady progress in a counterattack against russian troops on the southeastern front line. western officials say a major thrust is under way — though reports indicate that ukrainian advances are relatively minor. in a video published by president zelensky, ukrainian troops said they had taken a village to the east of zaporizhzhia city — under intense artillery fire and air strikes. russian president vladimir putin has said ukraine's a

with respect to countries like chile, where we have an fta, it's how do we build a vibrant relationship around critical minerals, recognizing that ultimately the success of our clean energy investments here, putting americanss to work around ev's will be around countries like chile, that need to be a critical part of how we do that, recognizing that the needs are great. the domestic source of those materials will never be where it needs to go. >> i would love to go on, but i know you have to get back to the white house. we r at 10:45 a.m. before we close, i want to offer you a chance give final thoughts or remarks. i know -- >> i think that the last thing i would say is -- i am struck regularly by kind of two things that i sometimes hear in the conversation. one is a kind of sense that relative to the past, that america's approach to the world economy is somehow less optimistic and more pessimistic. secondly, a sense that our relationships with allies and partners are not front and center. and how we are approaching the global economy. i would say that those are both fundamentally -- to

the us food agency fta has been called to investigate the drink which is popular with young kids andf caffeine, like consuming half a dozen cans of coke or two cans of red bull. that's where lawmaker chuck schumer comes in, he is concerned about the potential health risks from kids consuming that much caffeine. several schools in the uk and australia have already banned the drink. the company behind prime have labelled it not for children under 18, they point out that they sell an alternative called prime —— hydration. that contains a zero caffeine but chuck schumer believes the marketing of the two drinks is too similar, parents might not be able to tell the difference and might buy it for their kids, not realising they are giving them caffeine, that's why he's calling for the fda to investigate. it comes at a time of heightened scrutiny for energy rings because of these high levels of caffeine.— levels of caffeine. thank you, michelle fleury _ levels of caffeine. thank you, michelle fleury in _ levels of caffeine. thank you, michelle fleury in new- levels of caffeine. thank you, mi

there is real value in constantly trying to find ways we can limits the red tape, especially in the fta. i think there's endless work to be done. thank you all for your public service. >> thank you, senator hickenlooper, that is our last questionnaire. we thank the panelists very much for being with us today. now we will hear from her next panel. >>

as for the us, we may not have an fta but we have other things going on.that we still have an eu free trading agreement. that given that we still have an eu free trading agreement.— trading agreement. that is an important _ trading agreement. that is an important deal _ trading agreement. that is an important deal and _ trading agreement. that is an important deal and we - trading agreement. that is an important deal and we are - trading agreement. that is an - important deal and we are dealing with a delay on the line so we should just explain to our viewers it's making communication slightly difficult. people can also see, the minister, that trade as a percentage of gdp has fallen at double the rate of gdp has fallen at double the rate of the other g7 countries. cptpp may be an important new deal but you have not been able to keep some of the promises that were made to the public, that american deal, that indian deal, those promises haven't been kept. we are still in the middle of the india free trade agreement. the british public _ india free trade agre

that's why really this needs to be looked at by both government and the fta, because i really do thinketing the politically exposed persons regulations. the bbc contacted monzo bank about gina miller's case, a spokesperson said... —— for — — for safety —— for safety reasons, many airlines make it —— the bbc has found that major airlines are charging some disabled passengers double to fly from the uk. for safety reasons, many airlines make it compulsory for passengers with mobility problems to travel with a personal care assistant and charge full price for the additionalfare. this is despite civil aviation authority guidance on eu law, maintained by the uk post—brexit, calling on airlines to subsidise the cost. disabled people say the current measures are discriminatory and stop them from flying. bbc news contacted over 100 airlines, including all that fly from heathrow, to find out how many insist on a pa and whether they offer a discount. let's talk to melody powell, a diversity and inclusion consultant. that speak to a diversity and inclusion consultants, thank you for joining us. wh

think you know >> define your terms when is the fta. federal transit administration. they are hiring their own pmoc. had they will do part of a project of this scale they would require a pmo be hired report to themful >> are you saying we have to hire this person can not just something this board is asking us. i'm saying that for a project of this scale it is one of the best practices. but again it is this board to decide a matter of policy whether or not this board asked in november we pursue this you may with draw the request. do you think we should, director tumlin? i think we can take feedback and potential low go and discuss alternative approach and come become to you for potential action. i think probably the best way to do this is the project director is many to be our development director for the agency dot joint development work and this pda agreement an mta staff person to run it. 8100 plus people doing this this person is hired oui will be a quarter where i give a hor are update. i foal empowered give this important 8 and upd

in that regard, if you are president, sick him on the fta if he would be willing to serve or succumbti vaxxer. if kennedy is interested in hitting himself with that political rock -- it could decide to run as a third party candidate. he's not the only one. there are a whole host of third party candidates. some are running as democrats, some could still run in the third party, some are already wanting to run in the -- end the long listed options to run in the third party no labels ticket includes former president democratic senator. , joe lieberman, for maryland republican -- joe manchin, and former republican governor of utah, john huntsman. advocates for a so-called unity ticket will say, they will tell you, look, a whopping 47% of people would consider voting for third party candidates according to a recent poll. the numbers are overwhelming. 47% felt that way back in 2016. a third party candidate did barely swing the election to donald trump. what other consequences of all of this? is it actually what the country is looking for right now? we'll explain the answers to those massive

from the fta standpoint, they take the public health data about vaccinations and its effectiveness. we relied on scandinavia and israel for those data. everybody is beating up on us like why are you quoting those data? but they had all the information. i know the biologic center, who had set up a surveillance program for adverse events and to help records. who was vaccinated was not in the medical records because it was done through a different system. and to the states, with their own privacy laws and own approaches, could not get the data. we could not link albers events were outcomes light, did you get covid or not? we can't link that to whether you were vaccinated or not. we cannot draw conclusions about vaccine efficacy and safety in the u.s. the cdc is relatively small. there are many thousands of people. but they had an academic link program they were using for this. but it has some small data. we had really bad problems with false signals which is what you get with small data that is incomplete. for vaccines and adverse events, they are really safe or should be. so, we neede

and so, and our guard, it's like, okay, if you are president, sick came on the fta if he would be willing or sick him on cdc. but in terms of being veep, there is 70% of the issues that he may be adverse to our base on. that just creates an issue. >> so, he is saying, he couldn't be -- served as his vice president, but our f k jr., who is spreading conspiracy theories about covid-19 sparing jewish people last week could serve in the fda or the cdc? >> well, it could be. he didn't specify which medical things he found appealing. it could be that he likes rfk's theory that wi-fi causes leaky brain, for example, or that antidepressants are behind school shootings. so, there is room for some follow-up questions here. but i think that the -- >> and you are joking, a force, for our audience. the robert f. kennedy jr. record on these issues is just on and relieved cracked pottery. and it is irresponsible to talk about placing him anywhere near a position of authority, particularly on medical issues. and i say that somebody who thinks that the cdc in particular, and to a lesser degree the fda, ma

shery: you expect the next congress to ratify your fta with china?ope that happens because it would be highly beneficial for ecuador. imagine having access to a marked it millions of inhabitants. shery: your government is trying to issue several new decrees with force of law. what will be your priorities to get it passed by the constitutional court and will the court deem them urgent enough? >> there are important issues like job generation. the injection of the free-trade zones bill by the constitutional court is a setback unfortunately. the second project i sent, the tax reform that reduces taxes for the middle-class by a total of 100 any $5 million was approved which is a positive development. i understand there are two other projects currently in the process as well. shery: which decrees are related to capital markets? >> we have a capital markets bill already to modernize capital markets. that and in and of itself is a big project we are working on. we have other economic projects that ready that generate income to the treasury. shery: our exclu

and any challenges, i understand also that fta has been an obstacle and getting approval? can you speak to that? and what we need to see from fda in order to see this research actually their fruit? >> we don't see them as being an obstacle, but it's certainly -- >> that's my term. >> certainly we need to partner with them. >> thank you. >> the challenges are to protect the newly transplanted island souls, regardless of -- where. from the attack on the immune system. so we are using different approaches, for example, we are -- also trying to genetically engineer the island cells so that they are not recognized as being foreign. these are the types of approaches -- as you point out, the findings are very impressive. >> so we actually see a cure in the foreseeable future for diabetes. >> he was also very promising. >> that's, okay you don't have to repeat that, i can do that, thank you, thank you madam chair. >> thank you, senator shock. >> scientist -- thank you very much for being here. dr. gordon, i don't have to tell you that we are facing a youth mental health crisis. th

fema is like 5000, 6000 ftas. it is not an army. i love them.yone else in the federal government. any, helicopters in or people that -- so have a sense of what those resources are. so your demands can be specific to what they presently have. we'll have regional human heads who are going to have a sense of what's going on the other states as well so get a sense of the numbers and your expectations with also be set. >> pedram. >>, festival after committee about the amount of information and knowledge that you have, you see something about not having experience so it is all hard to react to everything you've told us. one thing and i will try to be brief. one thing that is very hard for me to handle is dealing with communities that are located where they shouldn't be. meaning and plot area are to coast to coast and you cannot start extra predating all over the place. if they have a title, some of that even how title that's a safety issue. that's hard. fema is doing a couple of things that i think incentivize those constituents to move. the first, fe

the coverage but splitting the current 5 zones to 6 and added with the additional zone added 2 new fta, drivers. estimate third degree should increase capacity by 20%. under the previous service level agreement you saw in initial requests a cap of 113,000. or 310 per day assuming they increase capacity by 20% over their -- 100,000 calls where we mead meet them on time. the 100,000 versus dobb 120 thousand what are the material calls. is 100,000 the actuals. 120 is when you project? >> last year the actuals the cap in the order the actuals were 113,000. that's what they set the sla. if you look at previous historical numbers it is -- it has been above 100,000 since the pandemic in 2018 and before 100,000 or below. that period they were able to meet the on time the 4 hour -- pick up time. and since them since it has gone over the average it is above. what is the recent number. >> 113,000. >> got it. >> we looked when they were previously able to meet the on time service needs. and since we increased resources by 20% the assumption is than i should meet the 120,000 going forward. >> to fo

, we want to make sure that as communities are reaching out, whether it is federal highway funds or fta funds, or real funds, as we and example, with reconnecting communities, that we are looking at it through a multi modal lens. so, the solutions that come out are the best ones for those communities and not federally prescribed approach. >> thank you, senator kramer? >> thank you, senator cardin and senator capito for this very good and important hearing. sister -- thanks for being here. i'm going to drill down, and i want to go back to senator capito's concerns about the proposed rule, and not only the lack of authority, i believe there is a lack of authority to do, it but also on the practicality of it. but first, first on the authority side, before i get to why it's not gonna work in north dakota, or other places, that are going to require commuter buses or subways, in the inflation reduction act, it dedicates 27 billion dollars for green banks, something the vpi withdrew almost immediately after getting the authority to do it. they created, instead, this sort of slush funds for gra

i am not one however that believes we need additional fta is or that we should be doing anything to helpe is more by giving more u.s. jobs away. there's an assumption that to have that discussion that is in fact my view. i think there's a positive agenda he can have an a lot of things you can talk about in technology and we ought to be doing and some of them by the way this administration is talking about and personally for example i would want to see people come together and have some kind of a carbon border adjustment and not a carbon tax. there are things in trade law enforcement and a lot of things you could do with allies to create kind of a brand that i think is helpful. .. >> doctor smith, technology stuff, because those are the areas in my car, and understanding them to an end by judgment, with that a respect, i think reciprocity is a good policy by the way across the board with everyone all the timt in my judgment, there is no justifications but if somebody could help at when i was a close construction on so that's why i was of vague about that and i think that the direction to

first, based on fta initial review of the documents, it appears cms is not adequately enforcing hospitalrice transparency role. secondly, cms is withholding over 38000 pages of responsive documents claiming trade secret extensions, first, mr. secretary can you tell cindy what percentage of hospitals are in compliance with the price transparency role? >> congress and thank you for the question it is an important subject but i apologize i came prepared to u talk about the unaccompanied children program. >> i think you ought a person of the follow-up. do you feel cms is taken the appropriate and necessary actions to enforce this rule to date? >> congressman it's been working very hard to implement any number of regulations and statutes that are now placed as agr result of congress a passage of these new laws. i can try to get back to pick what's thank you think that information is important would you agree that by withholding the documents that i mentioned above that cms is giving the impression that cms is afraid of what the public might uncover it through this foia effort? >> cms is been

we introduced the dairy pride act designed to make the fta follow their own definitions to basically is that that milk comes from a mammal. this promotes truth in advertising. and apparently consumption of wholesome three products. in your professional opinion, does milk come from a mammal. >> if you use the term milk, it has a nutritional brand. >> i like where you're going. >> i think if you're going to use the term, you ought to be able to establish that the nutritional value of whatever you are trying to say is milk is equal to or better than -- >> so should the fda follow their own definitions? >> i think that regulation is on the books. if they want potential regulation, that's up to them. at the end of the day, i think the key here really is making sure that whenever people use these terms, that the nutritional value, the consumer of confused. >> my final question, use the term build new and better market communities multiple times. there are 1.5 billion indians almost continents. they limit their meat consumption. 1.2 billion people. 39% self report as vegetarian. 595 million

in may, the fta convened a three day with risk workshop with the portal project team in order to comprehensively review scope, schedule and budget ahead of securing a multi-billion dollar full funding agreement by 2025. this month, we finalized the project's interagency cooperation agreement between jpa and the city, which will underpin the city's role in the project, which will use city right of way and require the partnership of several city departments. we've also extended our existing six party mou to the end of 2023, which will permit our strong multi-agency partnership to continue to support the jpa board in preparing the project for procurement and in parallel, the transportation authority and the mtc are preparing recommendations for a new governance structure to support procurement and construction to be codified through a successor mou in the coming months. we are continuing our advocacy at a regional, state and federal levels to complete the full funding plan for the portal. and this month we reelected jeff gee, the mayor of redwood city and chair of the caltrain joint jpa. as chair o

in may, the fta convened a three day with risk workshop with the portal project team in order to comprehensively review scope, schedule and budget ahead of securing a multi-billion dollar full funding agreement by 2025. this month, we finalized the project's interagency cooperation agreement between jpa and the city, which will underpin the city's role in the project, which will use city right of way and require the partnership of several city departments. we've also extended our existing six party mou to the end of 2023, which will permit our strong multi-agency partnership to continue to support the jpa board in preparing the project for procurement and in parallel, the transportation authority and the mtc are preparing recommendations for a new governance structure to support procurement and construction to be codified through a successor mou in the coming months. we are continuing our advocacy at a regional, state and federal levels to complete the full funding plan for the portal. and this month we reelected jeff gee, the mayor of redwood city and chair of the caltrain joint jpa. as chair o