Henry Waxman: “my congratulations to the gentleman from Virginia, Chairman Bliley, and the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Bilirakis, and…”

“my congratulations to the gentleman from Virginia, Chairman Bliley, and the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Bilirakis, and our Democratic leaders, the gentleman from Michigan, Mr. Dingell, and the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Sherrod Brown, for producing the Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act, which marks the successful end of a long 3-year process. I do not agree with some of the provisions in this bill, and I certainly would have written it differently, but I do support it today. I have no difficulty in supporting this legislation in large part because Chairman Bliley developed a process where all Members could participate, their views could be heard, and compromises could be reached. That kind of leadership is harder than some might think, because there is always pressure to be partisan and to get what one side and only one side wants. But if we are going to ever pass legislation into law, we have to recognize that it needs to be done on a bipartisan basis, and we have to have a process where we try to find common ground. I want to express my appreciation to our chairman for his leadership. I do have some reservations about the scope of many of the provisions in this legislation, particularly when it comes to the off-label promotion of drug and devices and third-party review of devices. But I want to point out that these are experimental provisions with sunsets which will allow us to critically reexamine their public health consequences.”