CPRIT exec director: "lawmakers needed to vent their anger"; "hoping that we reached a point to where we can largely stop talking about the past"

http://www.sfgate.com/news/texas/article/CPRIT-chief-No-moratorium-end-targeted-yet-4276547.php

CPRIT chief: No moratorium end targeted yet

By PAUL J. WEBER, Associated Press

Updated 4:10 pm, Wednesday, February 13, 2013

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A moratorium that has prohibited Texas' troubled $3 billion cancer-fighting agency from handing out more money since December will continue for now as hundreds of funded projects continue being reviewed, the state official in charge of the decision said Wednesday.

Wayne Roberts, interim executive director of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, declined to offer a timetable on when the agency that remains mired in a criminal investigation and widespread rebuke might begin operating as normal again.

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Roberts said he understood that lawmakers needed to vent their anger and disappointment since the Legislature convened last month, but he said he hopes the conversations will now shift toward repairing the agency and moving forward.

"I kind of view this as a breaking point here," Roberts said. "I'm really hoping that we reached a point to where we can largely stop talking about the past."

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