mr. pitts: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. pitts: mr. speaker, h.r. 2005, the combating autism re-authorization of 2011, would enable the department of health and human services to continue its important work to understand, treat and cure autism spectrum disorders. in 2000, congress passed the children's health act that included funding for research and surveillance on autism. eventually in 2006 congress passed the combating autism act but is now being re-authorized. the combating autism act authorizes h.h.s. to research on autism spectrum disorders and other developmental disabilities at n.i.h., convene an interagency autism council, conduct surveil ons to eye departmentify the extent of the -- identify the extent of the disorder an promote early screening and train medical personnel to identify children at risk. since the program was first passed in 2006, research has led to better diagnosis, more comprehensive surve

mr. pitts might be correct with the technical stuff. a very open heart can change a situation. i have no doubt that lj cares about the situation. >> is in any other public comment? >> seeing none, public comment is closed. just to quickly address one of the comments that was made, it is true, we frequently to have only one applicant for each seat for many of the committees that we hold and i think that we could probably increase our outreach efforts. the mayor's office has finally put together a website where it is easy to find all the seats that are available as they come forward. we encourage members of the public to look at the website and to make sure that if there are seats, you want to make sure that the board is getting out there. i also want to thank the many applicants that have applied. we need to get the advisory committee. and within 60 days of this passing and that is part of the rush and putting this at this month, at this time and we passed this legislation in april. are there any comments? >> just a question for the colors, are there any that came in late that c

was that mr. pitt or mr. atkins? >> that was me. >> yeah.would you -- i'm interested in your, obviously, one of the key questions for us is what is the appropriate devolution and interrelationship between the public agency and self-regulatory agencies? there are great advantages to self-regulatory agencies, but there were some problems. would you explain your opinion on finra and how we can begin to restructure these relationships? >> yes, sir. well, thank you. yeah, i put that in, i wasn't, obviously, at the last hearing. but we need to look now at, i think, how self-regulatory agencies operate in the current climate. you have sros, you know, historically were the nasd and also the various markets. now the markets are for-profit companies, and so i think a lot needs to be done to step back and really look at, you know, should a for-profit company still be categorized as an sro with all the paraer if nail ya which goes with that as far as rule approvals, especially when you compare to the cftc and how on that side rules are approved or not.

mr. pitt. >> thank you for your invitation to discuss the legislative proposals that are clearly intended to improve and enhance the performance of the securities and exchange commission. and the performance needs to be enhanced. i commend you and the members of this committee for holding this kind of a hearing and for the important consideration this committee has given to ways to improve the sec's effectiveness. to assist the committee yet stay within this time restraints that you have asked us to respect, i would like to briefly raise five overarching points for your consideration. and i leave the details in my written statement. first, the sec is vital to the proper functioning of this country's economy and capital markets and has been given an extraordinary and ever- increasing mandate over the past 77 years. these days, the agency mission is often overlooked and its successes are often ignored. instead, the sec has been converted into an institutional pinata. attacked for whatever it doe

. >>> it seems mr. pittning his cent comments about his previous marriage to jennifer aniston. in an interview, he was quoted as saying he wasn't living an interesting life and thought his marriage had a little something to do with that. brad pitt talked to matt lauer and jennifer aniston and his current partner, angelina jolie. >> i think it's a shame that i can't say something about angie without jen being drug in. she doesn't deserve it. >> he also said he hasn't spoken to jennifer about the comments he made. and then this. >> it sounds awful, but it's kind of relief that it's over for me now. >> the macphail family says they find peace in troy davis' execution, but many of his supporters are still expressing outrage over his death. also, we know passengers, you know this, perhaps personally here. you check when you go to the airport. many are outraged by such searches, but who's keeping an cry on the planes? the fbi now of these odd markings found on the underbellies of planes. that's next. in the world.

mr. pitt? >> yeah, i think we have a couple of problems. the first is, as has been mentioned, we are dealing with an antiquated set of foundational statutes. and most of the innovations over time, and it not just for the sec, it's in the banking area as well, have been by jury rigging existing statutes, to sort of get around some of the restraints. there is not enough attention paid to the fact that government is a service business. and when people have new ideas and they want to get to market, and they've got ideas, they run into the kinds of bureaucracy and red tape that they do. they can't get their ideas to market. so when i was in private practice, i saw people's money dry up when the staff couldn't get to those issues because they had other issues and they didn't know how to juggle their efforts, and things. so one problem is clearly the fact that the statutes are antiquated. second, we have a system that is predicated now on the reverse logic. if you look at what the most sophisticated investors want when they choose to invest their

. >>> how does angelina jolie pass the day with the kids while brad pitt is off shooting a movie? mr. plus for the next time you're meeting up with her, we'll tell you exactly which flower never to give madonna. your "first look" at entertainment is straight ahead. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. about this flat haircolor! [ gigi ] try nice 'n easy anti-flat, always dimensional. in one simple step, get tones and highlights built into every shade with nice 'n easy. dr. scholl's custom fit orthotic center recommends the custom-fit orthotic that's best for your tired feet. foot-care scientists are behind it. you'll get all-day relief. for your tired achy feet. for locations, see drscholls.com. thank you... with professional-grade research. and some of the most powerful, yet easy to use trading tools on the planet. it's investing with intelligence and cold hard conviction. e-trade. investing unleashed. it's real milk full of calcium and vitamin d. and tastes simply delicious. for those of us with lactose intolerance... lactaid® milk. the original 100% lactose-free milk. >>> welcom

mr. alkire, you're recognized for five minutes. turn good morning chairman pitts, ranking member pallone i'm chief operating officer of the premier health care alliance. chimeras owned by not-for-profit hospitals and health systems. to use the power of collaboration to high-quality and cost-effective health care. one of the ways we do this is by aggregating buying power 2500 hospitals to get the most effective medical supplies and drugs at the best prices. i think the committee for leading efforts to address drug shortages. as you're aware, the number of drug shortages has tripled since 2005 and many of these medicines are essential to patient care. premier set out to understand the extent of the problem three survey. we found that between july and december 2010, more than 240 drug retailer in short apply or completely unavailable in 2010. over 400 generic equivalents were backordered for more than five days. many of the drugs noted as backordered in 2010 have remained unavailable or in short supply in 2011 in 80% of the hospitals reported shortages resulted in a

mr. grey company recognized for five minutes. >> good morning chairman pitt's, ranking member pullout. i have judd gregg, president and ceo of the management association in arlington, virginia appear to appreciate the opportunity to provide an some overview of the pharmaceutical distribution system and inform your committee and efforts regarding critically important issue of a drug shortages. a little history, each dna is a national association representing america's primary health care distributors, a vital link in health care distribution. each business are 34 member companies ensure that nearly 9 million prescriptions, medicines and parties that delivered safely and efficiently to nearly 200,000 premises in clinics, hospitals, nursing homes and other providers nationwide. approximately 90% of all pharmaceutical product sales in the united states flow through our member companies. continued innovation have really set members apart to contribute about $42 billion in value to the nation's health care system. federal law defines wholesale drug distribution is the distribution of prescri

mr. colgan beleaguered and you recognized for an opening statement. >> thank you, chairman pitts and members of the subcommittee. i am a corporate director of university medical center in chicago, illinois. i am here because i cannot serve my patients due to shortages of medications some of them critical to patient care. there's no single solution that will solve the problem of drug shortages but there are things we can do to help address this issue. bipartisan legislation of both houses of congress would enable fda to require drug manufacturers report confidentially to the agency when they experience an interruption in production of their product. this system will help the fda work with other manufacturers to ramp up production when another company experiences a problem. moreover the bills call on fda to work with manufacturers to develop continuity of supply plans which could help identify backup sources, pharmaceutical ingredients and produce redundancies to serve as reserve supplies. some have argued this legislation won't have any impact. we disagree. you have heard this morning from th

mr. grey company recognized for five minutes. >> good morning chairman pitt's, ranking member pullout. have judd gregg, president and ceo of the management association in arlington, virginia appear to appreciate the opportunity to provide an some overview of the pharmaceutical distribution system and inform your committee and efforts regarding critically important issue of a drug shortages. a little history, each dna is a national association representing america's primary health care distributors, a vital link in health care distribution. each business are 34 member companies ensure that nearly 9 million prescriptions, medicines and parties that delivered safely and efficiently to nearly 200,000 premises in clinics, hospitals, nursing homes and other providers nationwide. approximately 90% of all pharmaceutical product sales in the united states flow through our member companies. continued innovation have really set members apart to contribute about $42 billion in value to the nation's health care system. federal law defines wholesale drug distribution is the distribution of prescript

pitts, thank you so much. and we'll be back with some final thoughts in just a moment. ♪ [ mrs.ke science as exciting as a video game. i need to reach peter, who's falling behind. and push janet who's 6 chapters ahead. ♪ [ male announcer ] with interactive learning solutions from dell, mrs. davis can make education a little more personal. so every student feels like her only student. dell. the power to do more. >> schieffer: 9/11 was one of the worst things that ever happened to america. those of us who live in the northeast will always carry special memories of that day. i knew ten people who died that day or lost both relatives. my memories are nothing compared to their losses, but i remember how helpless we felt that long morning until our family located and knew our younger daughter, who worked in manhattan, was safe. i also remember some wonderful things that happened. ♪ god bless america members of congress gathering on the capitol steps to sing "god bless america." the country and its elected representatives coming together as we have not come together since world war ii.

with you chairman pitts as we get to the bottom of this issue and again thank you for having the hearing. i yield back. >> the chair recognizes the ranking member of the full committee, mraxman for five minutes. >> thank you chairman pitts for recognizing me and for holding this hearing. recent media and other reports indicate the drug shortages are now at an unprecedented level. indeed according to fda the number of drugs in short supply in 2010 was almost triple that of 2005. shortages affect a broad spectrum of critically important drugs including oncology drugs to treat lymphoma, leukemia, and other cancers and seizure drugs without which surgeries have to be postponed and antibiotics to remedy life-threatening bacterial infections. without these drugs, patients lives are at risk. drug scarcity is generally affecting sterile injectable drugs. these drugs are technically difficult to make and each drug is usually manufactured by only one or a handful of reducers. if any one company develops manufacturing problems, which is not uncommon, other companies may have little excess capacity to help fill the need. with the aging of our population, the outsourcing of drug man

pitt. and "dolphin tale" is third. >>> "american morning" will be back right after this break. hi. i'm kristen. we're going to head on into the interview. sir.....mrnew body style. it's almost movin' in from a little house to like this mansion. who uses the navigation system the most? definitely i do. (laugh) i'm directionally impaired. reporters laugh if you guys could thank ford for one thing, what would it be? for making us the joneses. (laugh) reporters laugh luck? i don't trade on luck. i trade on fundamentals. analysis. information. i trade on tradearchitect. this is web-based trading, re-visualized. streaming, real-time quotes. earnings analysis. probability analysis: that's what opportunity looks like. it's all visual. intuitive. and it's available free, wherever the web is. this is how trade strategies are built. tradearchitect. only from td ameritrade. welcome to better trade commission free for 60 days when you open an account. >>> good morning. time for this morning's top stories. >>> a shooting at the u.s. embassy in kabul, afghanistan. two people are dead and an embassy spokesperson says the dead include a u.s. citizen and an afghan