rogers and then ms. lowey, and then we'll go that way. >> i want to follow the chairman's lead in the sense that not only do members have to fly, i understand that you have important business involving our nation, so i will yield and deal with questions at a later point. >> mr. rogers? >> general holder, as i said before, i appreciate your work on the prescription drug abuse problem. and one of the most important things that has taken place is the installation in now 49 states of the prescription drug monitoring programs where assumedly doctors and nurses and those that prescribe medicine are able to check on a statewide computer network to be sure that the person they're seeing and prescribing medicine for is not doctor shopping even across state lines. that's been very effective. however, two main problems, or three main problems. one, a very low percentage of doctors are using that system. secondly, it's not realtime. there's days at least, maybe even weeks of delay between when a person is -- a prescriptio

ms. lowey's comments.y share your disappointment and representative subbase would have been on the background check bill. we discussed a lot and i know you take action to the executive order to deal with some of the state participation of writing mental-health workers to make a more complete database. there is a different issue that involves federal requirement that not only this mental-health records being put in the system, but also evidence of serious substance abuse and in many respects, the substance abuse history has proven a more reliable indicator of when someone gets weapons for violent crime. th ia very knotty issue, difficult issue in the state of the most fundamental healtht site. i wonder if you could share her thoughts and you navigate that. a broader issue, which i do you for some it s of great concern to the issue and that is the ever burgeoning prison population, populated with people of mental-health problems, substance abuse problems, but the unsustainability and any thoughts you'd like

rogers and then ms. loweyand then we will go the other way. >> i want to follow the chairman's lead in the sense that not only members have to fly but understand you have important business involving our nation so i will yield and deal with questions at a later point. >> mr. rogers. >> general holder, as i said before i appreciate your work on the prescription drug abuse problem and one of the most important things that have taken place is the installation in 49 states of the prescription drug monitoring programs, where assumably doctors and nurses and those who prescribe medicine are able to check on the state-wide computer network to be sure that the person they are seeing and prescribing medicine for is not door shoppin it'seeve effiv however three main problems. one, a low percentage of doctors are using that system. secondly, it's not real-time. there are days and even weeks of delay between when a person's prescription is registered in the system before it shows up. and thirdly it needs to be interoperab