It is hard enough to start and succeed at small business. It is even harder to grow your business by exporting, and somehow Washington is figuring out how to make it even more difficult.

I think, Mr. Chairman, what we need to do is reauthorize this bill and move on to the other work that has to get done.

The Export-Import Bank is an important part of this equation.

If there is any issue that more closely reflects the dysfunction of this town and the detachment of this town from what is actually going on in the country, I think this is it, our inability to get this done.

I think that would be really welcome.

I think consumers are surprised when they learn that we do not now have a system that routinely checks to see if the drugs they are about to get are counterfeit.

I believe that we can address the concerns and needs of the regulated community, address concerns raised by pharmacists about costs and provide the FDA with authority it says it needs to implement a system effectively to protect the public…

I am very proud to have the chance to work with both of you on this, and with my democratic and republican colleagues on a series of important bills here.

It is not only important for all the reasons Senator Mikulski said and the urgency of getting this done, I think it sets a model for what the rest of Congress should be doing.

Nor do we have a system that is able to track the product as it moves through the system, and a robust national system would be far preferable to a patchwork of State laws.

I think it is a critical component of trying to create a patient-centric approach here.