What would the world be like for health insurance if we let the insurance companies be in charge?

commend you and your team for your tireless efforts on implementing the Affordable Care Act

nothing is more important than preventing disease and promoting good public health, and I hope this fund can be used for the purpose for which it was intended.

Well, you don't have the authority to get record inspections, isn't that right?

If we want you to do your job, we have got to give you the tools.

This meningitis outbreak from compounded drugs has claimed the lives of over 50 people, sickened over 700, brought unspeakable grief upon hundreds of families, and it is one of our Nation's worst public health disasters in recent memory.

No, we, as you note, don't have the authority to even know who is out there and what they are making.

So a compounding pharmacy can put together drugs, but they don't have to come to the FDA to ask approval or even register with you to let you know that they are doing that, isn't that correct?

It is hard for any reasonable person to not conclude you need a stronger, clearer law to give you authority.

If I just looked at the costs, that would be one way to make a decision, but you should look at the costs and benefits.

A billion dollars in Washington is considered an everyday decision.

This bill relies on an outlandish premise: that EPA's public health and environmental protections provide no benefits at all to the American people.

The benefits of most important rules dwarf the costs.

Justice delayed is justice denied.

There was no precedence for the Clean Air Act in the first place.

It is not common sense. It is not providing transparency.

So it is imperative that we allow the EPA to act as an impartial referee and ensure that the playing field is level for all Americans.

I think it is part of the reason that we have this bill, have somebody besides the EPA taking a look at these issues.

This is a bill that we shouldn't be spending our time talking about because it just doesn't make sense even though we are being told it is common sense.

Mr. Chairman, the American people want us to solve their problems, not waste our time with partisan posturing.

As Congressman Waxman explained in his opening statement, the ratio between the cost and the benefits, the benefits exceed the cost by several orders of magnitude in almost all of these rules.

Chairman, the American people want us to solve problems not waste our time with partisan posturing, taking up nonsensical message bills that stand no chance of becoming law.

Faced with these facts, opponents of EPA rules now argue that we should simply ignore the benefits and consider only the costs.

This is an unprecedented intrusion on the authority of the EPA.

This bill sets a different standard for critical public health and environmental standards to be determined under law by the Environmental Protection Agency.