mr. markey be recognized for five minutes. without objection. so ordered. >> thank you very much. i find it highlyronic we're having a hearing to express the majority's apparent surprise that matters related to yucca mountain are sometimes political. this issue has been nothing but political fromed beginning. the department of energy was to select two scientifically sites, one east of the mississippi river and one west of the mississippi river. but the speaker of the house then said he didn' want it in texas. that was one of the sites. the second site was in washington state. the majority leader said, i don't want it in washington state. it was out. the third side was in indiana. they said no. the fourth sight was in north carolina. the commissioner said they didn't want it in north carolina. mississippi itself was a potential site but they will a powerful delegation at that time and said they don't want it in mississippi. and john sununu, as the governor of new hampshire o on behalf of george bush said we didn't want it in the granite formations. so the nuclear -- so it all happe

mr. markey. the speaker: the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized for three minutes. mr. markey: i thank the gentleman very much. i rise in opposition to this republican attempt to deem their budget passed. just deem it passed so we can begin with this process. it's just wrong. it's not the way we should be conducting business, but it's the way they have been operating all year. now, recently radio evangelist harold camping calculated the world would end at precisely 6:00 p.m. on may 21. well, he was wrong. but much like harold camping's wildly inaccurate predictions, the house republicans have come up with their own apocalyptic vision, the republican rapture. it decides, this budget decides who gets lifted up into the economic stratosphere, and who gets left behind. under this scheme if you are a millionaire or billionaire, you get raptured into heaven. with all of your tax breaks. remaining intact. but, if your grandma and grandpa and your dependent -- and you're dependent upon medicare in order to take care of your health care needs, you get moved to political purg torr

mr. markey, for four minutes. the chair: the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized for four minutes. mr. markey: i thank the chairman, the ranking member, very much. this underlying legislation represents another attempt by the republicans to gut the clean air act. you know, shell oil spent years changing its mind about how it wanted to drill, what ship it wanted to use and even which of the arctic seas it planned to drill in. they themselves dragged out this process internally. this legislation prevents e.p.a. from requiring emissions reductions from all drilling support vessels, from icebreakers to the drilling ship itself as part of the air permitting process. what that means is that up to -- listen to this number, up to 98% of the total air emissions associated with the arctic outer continental shelf drilling could not be regulated by the e.p.a. under the permitting process. so hear that again. that bill says that the e.p.a. can't regulate 98% of the emissions. that's not reasonable. that's not a compromi

mr. markey's bill which the association strongly supports, moreover, the insights apply across the dual eligible and medicare populations. again, thank you. the alzheimer's association greatly appreciates the opportunity to address these issues, and we look forward to our continuing work with the subcommittee. >> chair thanks the gentleman and recognizes mr. millwee for five minutes. >> [inaudible] >> that might be better. i'd like to spend a few minutes speaking to you about the star plus program. the star plus program is a cap tated managed care model that integrates acute and community-based care services for the disabled population in texas. this includes the dual eligible members. a little bit about the texas medicaid population. there are about 3.2 million people on medicaid in texas today. of that number, about 700,000 are classified as disabled, and of that about 400,000 are duals. these represent about 25% of the medicaid population, but approximately 58% of the total medicaid costs. where does star plus originate? it originated in 1998 as a pilot in houston. it was created largely to a

mr. markey: thank you, mr. chairman. this amendment eliminates confusion regarding the deadline for filing patent term extensions under the hatch-waxman act and provides the certainty needed to encourage critical medical research. it also promotes good government by ensuring that the patent office and the f.d.a. adopt consistent interpretations of the very same statutory language. and finally this amendment is consistent with the only court decision addressing this issue. the court stated that the interpretation that is reflected in this amendment, this is from the court, i quote, is consistent with the statute's text, structure and purpose. right now america's next lipper to or prozac could be bottled up at the patent office and never made available because of uncertainty regarding the patent term extension process. in order to uncork american innovation and invention, we need a patent extension process that is clear, consistent and fair. that's exactly what the conyers amendment does. it enjoys broad bipartisan support

mr. markey. the grid act provides the federal energy regulatory commission with emergency authority to respond to imminent physical and cyber threats to the bulk power system and electric infrastructure of that serves facilities vital to our national defense. this emergency authority can be triggered only upon a directive from the president. the discussion draft also provides for with the authority to identify -- ferc with the authority to identify and and remedy weaknesses that leave the grid vulnerable to cyber attacks and electromagnetic pulse events. it also directs ferc to develop regulations to facilitate the sharing of information as a pro be between governmental agencies, nerc, and owners and operators of the bulk power system. doing so will improve communication among affected stakeholders which will result in a more secure grid. if all the discussion draft is identical to last year's bills, we expect that input and insight provided by today's witnesses will help) approved a bill to refl

mr. markey mentioned, that only -- i don't have his exact figures but roughly 29% if i remember right of the grid was considered critical by the industry. i think it's a much larger amount than that so i think you have to have more significant. with respect to the basis, i want to make the point even if the bases have electricity and there are actions going on -- i can't tell you what it stands for but it's called spiders. it's a demonstration program and this is nonclassified. you can look it up in the on google to make the bases more self-sufficient and the doe has a so-called spiders program at 3 or 4 different bases and the doe relies on telecommunications capabilities on the country. it relies on the transportation capabilities of the country. it relies on water. it relies on gas pumps and the like and all of those rely on electricity so there's no possibility, whatsoever that you can have an effective defense unless you have electricity that will go beyond the basis. in addition, it happens to be true overseas which is a different topic that the chairman raised. but it goes beyond

mr. markey. the grid act provides the federal energy regulatory commission with emergency authority to respond to imminent physical and cyber threats to the bulk power system and electric infrastrture that rves facilities vital to our national defense. this emergency authority can be triggered only upon a directive from the president. the discuson draft also provides ferc with authority to identify and remedy weaknesses that leave the grid vult eshlt to attacks and events. notably, this legislation also directs ferc to develop regulations to facilitate the sharinof information as appropriate between government agencies, nerc and owners and operators of the bulk power system. doing so will improve communication among effective sta holder stakeholders which will will result in we hope a more secure grid. although the draft is identical to last year's bill, we expect that input from today's witnesses and insight provided by those witnesses will help us improve the bill to reflect current conditions