Michael Bennet

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

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 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.

Thank you, Madam President. And I thank the Senator from Illinois for his leadership and agree it is vital we pass the transportation bill. ____________________

It moves this ball down the field. I hope it establishes a model for how we can work together to make sure that we are actually addressing things I am hearing about in the townhalls and that we are driving wage growth and job growth here…

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

And what are the implications of that?

I want to just underscore an observation you made a minute ago, that as we think about this international harmonization, it also is, I think, the interest of many people on this Committee that our agencies reach harmonization domestically…

We also want to thank Senator Michael Bennet, who is an original cosponsor of S. 1635.

I say often that one of the bright spots is the work on the Agriculture Committee where we have a very bipartisan approach.

Unfortunately, they did not do their job, and now we are facing an expiration date for the farm bill this year.

I think that is very well said.

It is frightening to me to think that we are struggling to find the next generation to carry on this vital and historic State industry.

These initiatives will inject capital throughout the country, throughout the entire geography of the country, in a way that we have not seen before.

This is a place, I think, where there is very broad bipartisan support and that we ought to figure out how to advance these bills in a bipartisan way.

What we have in front of us is the possibility, through Senator Merkley's bill, ... to really change this.

If we are not educating the people in this country to be able to do these jobs, the capital formation that we are all talking about here is going to go someplace else to find human capital that actually can drive these new businesses.

It is fleeting, though.