Sam Farr: “I rise on the issue of drug reimportation. I am on the committee. I support the agricultural bill, I think it is a good…”

“I rise on the issue of drug reimportation. I am on the committee. I support the agricultural bill, I think it is a good bill, but I think there is a part of it that we have got to wake up. The question is, when is drug reimportation not an importation? I hope that the Members of this Congress and particularly the press will take a look at the small print in this bill, specifically, the technical amendments to the underlying bill. Take a look at page 41, for example. That bill is the one that talks about reimportation of drugs. On page 41 we see a subsection entitled F which says 'Country Limitation.' If you go to the language, it reads, 'Drugs may be imported only, only from the countries that are listed in subparagraph A of section 802(b)(1).' That is not in this bill, so you have got to go someplace else and look it up. Here is the sham. If you turn to that section in existing law, one finds that it only lists those countries where American drug companies can send unapproved products. That is the title of that section, 'Unapproved Products.' Here is the trap. American companies can send out but cannot reimport, because we do not allow unapproved products to come back into the United States. I hope the American press can do what the congressional staff has failed to do and that is to tell the truth about this section. The drug provisions are a sham. There is no reimportation. I ask for a no vote on the rule.”