newhouse. mr. newhouse: thank you, madam chairman. acting secretary wolf, thank you being with us today. appreciate very much your presentation. just take a moment to use this as an opportunity to that the men and women and for the . dedication to the mission in country.g our we appreciate that very much. we look forward to continuing to you.partner with i wanted to talk a little bit national role of the laboratories and what -- and how hey can be an integral part of d.h.s.'s work. i heard your response to mr. i ischmann's question and appreciate that. don't have to tell you that we're -- we're facing evolving threats, both natural and man-made. things that erent are coming at you. i'm sure sometimes you feel like he little dutch boy with your fingers in the dike but a lot of things are happening. areas like n biodefense and cybersecurity, mentioned. one way that we have been able to tay ahead of the game is research and development and that's certainly something the laboratories, including the national laboratory in my district, the

newhouse for five minutes. >> does that mean i get to go somewhere else too, derek? thank you all for being here. this is a tremendously interesting topic. i can't help but think that all the discussion about congressional capacity and the growth of the executive branch and its power and privileges, congress has been helpful in that effort, very complicit. i guess we can't blame the presidential or the executive branch. we've allowed it to happen, we being the congressional, legislative branch. now what do we do about that? so i guess there's a lot of things we can talk about there. dr. hudak, we did notice your shameless plugging of your book, but that's okay. presidential pork, that's something we've been talking about a long time here, congressionally directed spending, that truly is a constitutional responsibility of the legislative branch and not the executive branch. so in your observations, you talked a little bit about it, but i want you to, if you could, expand some of the things, if this is put back into place, that debate is ongoing, but if we do go back t

newhouse. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from washington is recognized. thank you, mr. speaker. thank you, mr. chairman. we were all saddened and deeply frustrated to see the iconic puget sound continue to devolve into a dumping ground of human waste and sewage. it's no wonder the species in our nation's largest estuary are facing increasing odds of extinction. we must do more to address this environmental crisis. an aquatic toxicologist working with the national oceanic and atmospheric administration found that growth rates for salmon species in puget sound are stunned. fiss yo logical functions are disrupted when exposed to high levels of prozac, caffeine, cholesterol medication, ibuprofen, bug spray, cocaine, birth control pills and dozens of other drugs and personal care products in puget sound. i am very glad to see my friends from the west side of the state, mr. heck who has spent a great deal of his ill lust res you career, working on this issue, as well as mr. kilmer, who has also spent an inordinate amount of time working on this very, very important issue. wor