Mr. SHAYS. Thank you.

Before recognizing Mrs. Maloney, I want to say that this has been very important testimony, and there will be some tough questions to follow, but I wish some of this information had come out sooner. And I will say to you, Ms. Clark, I think our previous panel, some of the witnesses to make sure that your work of your agency was recognized. Because you were in the thick of it.

And I am also going to say that in the first day or two we probably needed the respirators more than later. But I know the mentality of everyone there; they just wanted to do whatever was necessary to get the job done. And I hope we do not forget what motivated people in those first few days. It was not about their own safety, it was just see if we can find anyone who is still alive. And we know that.

And I am also going to say that we are all Americans here. We love our country and we love the people who serve it, and we love the people who were involved in this effort. And we are just going to look backward and go forward.

And so, with that, I am going to first recognize Mrs. Maloney. I am going to then go to Mr. Turner, then to Mr. Owens and then to Mr. Nadler. We might have a second round if it is deemed necessary or partly that.

And so, Mrs. Maloney, you have the floor for 10 minutes. I am not going to let you ask a question and in the 10th minute that takes them 5 minutes to then respond to. I am going to keep you to the 10.

Mrs. MALONEY. OK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I thank all of the panelists for your testimony and your hard work.

If you were here earlier, I asked a question of the first panel. I asked them if they thought the Federal Government was doing all that they should or could do to respond to September 11. And everyone raised their hand saying that they did not believe that enough had been done, and then they said what they thought should be done.

I would like to ask you the same question and to respond with what you think Congress should be doing or the Government should be doing to respond to the disaster of September 11. And be very short and go right down the line, starting with Ms. Porter and going straight down, or Dr. Williamson.

Ms. PORTER. I think related to the health issues of workers that it is critically important that the screening program, which is underway, be continued and be funded for the long term.

I think that in addition funds for treatment would be appropriate, as would funds for research studies that could be done.

Last, I think that having listened to the first panel, it is really important that we sort out the workers compensation issue. Mrs. MALONEY. Yes.

Dr. Wagner.

Dr. WAGNER. In our particular arena, I think the efforts at getting our emergency response teams prepositioned, trained and properly equipped are underway. We need to complete that.

We continue to support research both in the short run for better understanding of what took place in terms of human health at the

World Trade Center, and more broadly for other potential terrorist attacks for the future.

Mrs. MALONEY. OK. Ms. Clark.

Ms. CLARK. I think it's essential that we not lose focus about what happened here and that we not forget and do not plan. Planning is absolutely essential. Emergency preparedness is all about using the things that we learned here; what went right, what went wrong and try to work on these.

I think working with the respirator community on having respirators that are more likely going to be worn by workers is very important.

Working with the responders to make sure that they are comfortable with respiratory protection. Prior to September 11 they really were only accustomed to the self-contained breathing apparatus, the scuba-like tanks. They did not know what negative pressure respirators were, and that was a problem.

And we are working very hard with those groups.

Coordination, collaboration and let us not forget that we have to keep working on this issue. I think that is absolutely essential. We can all do more in that regard.

Mrs. MALONEY. Ms. Porter, if you heard the first panel, I would like to place into the record a series of questions really on the funding. The funding for the monitoring was a bipartisan effort, along with Senator Clinton and Senator Schumer and others. And Mr. Shays and Mr. Turner all supported it. Yet what we heard from the first panel is they are not getting the money. The fire department says they're not getting the $25 million to continue their monitoring and treatment, and Mount Sinai does not know if there will be a disruption in their screening program. They have people on the waiting list trying to get in to be screened.

And I am sure you heard the comments that they felt the central registry, both in Mount Sinai and the city, was more effective in compiling the data for future research. I understand you have plans to market it out to different areas around the city, or whatever. And this might be problematic.

And my overall question is why can't they get the funding? We voted on this months ago. This was a bipartisan effort. It was signed into law. And they are still telling us they do not have the money.

Ms. PORTER. Right. The funds were transferred to us from FEMA on June 17th. And 6 days subsequent to that, we provided funding to the Mount Sinai Clinic to extend the baseline screening work, which was what was deemed appropriate after the May 2nd meeting that we had, which we had, by the way

Mrs. MALONEY. But the continued funding, the $25 million and the continued $90 million.

Ms. PORTER. Right. And then on 10 days, subsequent to receiving the funds, we provided-we signed a contract with the New York City Fire Department. And, unfortunately, we have in working together with the fire department, learned that we want to encourage firefighters to participate in the program, ensure the quality of the data as well as the consistency of the data with the other screening programs so that it's utility over time is there. And, unfortunately, we determined that the contract mechanism was not