Good afternoon, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for joining us today.
Madam Bruce, I just want to concur in something that you said. Our veterans fought for our country and it's up to us to stand by our veterans once the fighting is done. So I hope that when there is doubt we err on the side of the veterans' health.
There is a frustration, I think, that either the committee has heard or that is behind the scenes. We have the CDR, and sometimes the CDR passes or approves a drug and some stakeholders don't include it, and in another case when drugs are denied, stakeholders do include it or cover it. There's no really clear mechanism or transparency on what makes a drug approvable or not.
I think there's a lot of frustration with stakeholders, be it drug manufacturers or individuals who are required to get these drugs. I wonder if you could talk about transparency with the CDR and about how you feel about the transparency of the organization.
You also referred to several other review committees in your opening remarks, the FPT and DUEAC. Does your program duplicate the work of the CDR by re-evaluating the recommendations through these other committees? This is similar to what I think Bonnie Brown was asking. There does seem to be a bit of a duplication, but perhaps not. Could you clarify?