mr. howley, ms. burnett, thank you for your superb public service, and we certainly honor that public service. ms. burnett, what position did you play in basketball when you played basketball? >> point guard. >> point guard. i was 5'8", so i never played basketball. [ laughter ] mr. chairman, i have a letter from 38 members of the new york and new jersey delegation to speaker boehner and leader pelosi requesting early passage of the bill. i request it be submitted for the record. >> the gentleman seeks unanimous consent to put it in the record without objection, so ordered. >> thank you mr. chairman. doctor, i wanted to get into the -- try to have you explain, if you will the importance of not only the rutgers center but all of the centers part of this world trade program in terms of research, because there is an extensive research component and i wanted to kind of emphasize, if you can how you are developing diagnosis and treatment of disorders people may not even be aware of and how that research a

mr. howley, ms.rnett thank you for your superb public service, and we certainly honor that public service. ms. burnett what position did you play in basketball when you played basketball? >> point guard. >> point guard. i was 5'8", so i never played played basketball. mr. chairman, i have a letter from i think 38 members of the new york and new jersey delegation to speaker boehner and leader pelosi requesting early passage of this bill. i would request that it be submitted for the record. >> gentlemen seeks unanimous consent to put in the record without objection, so ordered. >> thank you. and i yield back seven seconds. >> chair, thank you gentlemen. recognizes the ranking member mr. palone, five minutes for questioning. >> thank you, chairman. doctor, i wanted to get into try to have you explain, if you will, the importance of not only the rutgers center but the center centers in regard to the research and the research component and i want to emphasize if you can how you are developing diagnosis an

mr. howley for five minutes for your summary. >> thank you, sir.irst thing i would like to do is thank you for having this hearing. it is obviously very important by diamandis people here today and it's both an honor and a privilege to be here and address here. there's a lot of things i'd like to say about this, but i think the most important is to answer a question you are basically post to dr. howard and that is what happens. dr. howard was wonderful in his answers but i think i will be more blunt about it. people are going to die. the men and women that are sick that are being taken care of now, i've only been cancer free at little over a year. i could easily and it wasn't for this lady right here, i wouldn't be here at all. to run this program people are going to die. it is a fact. it's unquestionable that is what is going to happen. i was born and raised in mr. vallone's district and lived in his district once i retired and ended a few years ago and i live in congressman lampson's district. i've size of the the aisle covered here. this is not

mr. howley: i was thinking of a story when you just asked the doctor a question. i'm probably one of her original patients going back to the monitoring program in 2003. the first time i went there my blood pressure was basically somewhere off her chart. my sinuses were completely blown out. i had constant infections. i have acid reflux. she basically refused to let me leave her office unless i went straight to my doctor to get treated for blood pressure. i'm 6'3" and she is about 5'1". i believed her that she was not going to let me out of the office. there is a big difference. and she is just wonderful. i have not really dealt -- i've only dealt with one other of the doctors at her office. i have never been any other office. i cannot speak about any of them. the doctors are generally -- i just tremendous. as she was saying, when the cancers kept coming back for me, it has reoccurred 4 times for me. she can make those phone calls now. and cap me to the right -- when she says tuesday, she's not kidding you. mr. pitts: would you respond to that as a patient in the h

mr. howley and ms. burnette commit thank you for superb public service. ms. burnette what position did you play basketball? >> point guard. >> i was five-foot eight so i never played basketball. mr. chairman, i have a letter from 38 members of the new york and new jersey delegation to speaker boehner and leader pelosi requesting early passage of the bill. i would request it be submitted for the record. >> the gentleman seeking unanimous consent to put in the record without objection so ordered. >> i yelled back seven seconds. >> we now recognize the ranking member of the full committee mr. pallone five minutes for questions. >> thank you, mr. chairman. dr. udasin, i wanted to have you explain if you will the importance of not only the rutgers center but all of the signers that are part of the world trade program in terms of research because there's an extensive research component. i want to emphasize if you can how you are developing diagnosis and treatment of disorders that people might not even be aware of and how that research and the uniqueness of the cent

mr. david howley. without objection, so ordered. we have two panels today. on the first panel we have dr. john howard, director, national institute for occupational safety and health. >> thank you very much for coming today dr. howard. your written statement will be made part of the record. you'll be recognized for five minutes to make your opening statement at this time you are recognized. welcome. >> thank you mr. chairman. and distinguished members of the committee. my name is john howard and i'm the administrator of the world trade center health program. i'm pleased to appear before you today to discuss the program and those it serves who responded to or survived the september 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on new york city and responded at the pentagon and in shanksville pennsylvania. they responded to an epic disaster and as a result suffer mental and physical injury illness and the risk of premature death. the program members responded to the 9/11 disaster from all 50 states and it has been stated from 429 of 435 congressional districts. the original eff