mr. towns, if you don't mind, plrn conley needs to run for a floor statement. if we can kind of come back, let mr. conley get in and then we'll come back to those examples of additional resources. >> i thank my colleagues and fib me. mr. chairman, i would ask unanimous consent that my opening statement be entered into the record in full. >> without objection so ordered. >> i would further request that colin kelly's statement prepared for this hearing also be entered into the record in full. >> without objection, so ordered. >> i thank the chair. plaintiff george you talked about i think you said a $450 billion tax gap. >> gross, yes. >> that's this year? >> as of 2006. >> 2006. and it's growing? >> yes, it is. and i believe it's a low balled figure and again, part of the earlier discussion indicated that it's an ongoing review. so and it doesn't include aspects such as the international tax gap. >> understood. do you think there could be some relationship between that growing gap and the fact that we've had a 20% reduction since 1995 in revenue offices and reve

mr. conley, you are recognized. >> mr.r, picking up with the comments last minute, the idea of why wouldn't we negotiate will be engaged with criminal regimes -- some might observe that in the very early weeks of the new george w. bush administration, president bush publicly overruled his own incoming secretary of state, secretary powell, who said we are going to continue the policy of engagement and negotiation of the clinton administration. president bush said no, we are not. what followed from that was a aggressive green pursuit of its nuclear program. would that be a fair statement? >> yes, i think that that is an accurate characterization of what happened. >> one can understand -- while one can understand the concerns raised by my colleague, and usher them, on the other hand, the idea of let's not engage -- let's have a policy of hostility -- doesn't have consequences, frankly, given the ability of north korea to pursue including nuclear program's? would that be a fair statement? >> i think that there needs to be some