11.   After Shalala issued her regulations directing major changes, HHS and the transplant network plunged into outright battle over the best way to distribute organs.

12.   Currently, organs are distributed locally first.

13.   For years, the Department of Health and Human Services has been fighting to change the way scarce organs are distributed to waiting transplant patients.

14.   Most of the arguments during the hearing focused on the agency regulations and how organs should be distributed.

15.   Other organs also are distributed along geographic lines, but livers have engendered the most controversy.

16.   The campaign is the brainchild of HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, who arrived at his post with a hard-line reputation on the issue of how to distribute donated organs.

17.   The current system distributes organs locally first, ensuring a reliable supply for programs around the country.

18.   The use of nonhuman organs could solve the dilemma of how available organs are distributed, he said.

19.   Thompson arrived at his post with a hard-line reputation on the issue of how to distribute donated organs.

20.   Those geographic lines have been at the heart of a national debate over the best way to distribute scarce organs, particularly livers.