Patricia Schroeder: “Mr. Speaker, this whole process is absolutely ridiculous. Let us talk about what we are doing here. We are taking the…”

“Mr. Speaker, this whole process is absolutely ridiculous. Let us talk about what we are doing here. We are taking the tradition of this country that has been in effect since this country began, and we are just throwing it up in the air and starting all over. We are doing it with one hearing, in which everybody was allowed 5 minutes to question witnesses, it was a huge panel of witnesses, and now we are not allowed any real amendments tomorrow. There are all sorts of amendments, but they have been filed way, way down. I was not allowed to present mine, and many others were not allowed to present many of theirs. They have put real strict time limits on it. I think most people in this body have no idea what they are doing. However, before people at home say 'Oh, there they go again, they are all whining; don't the Democrats sound terrible,' let me tell the average American how they are affected by this. If you go into a drugstore and you go to buy some drugs, you assume that they have been looked at by the Food and Drug Administration, and you assume a certain safety level. You can forget that, because last week we did away with all that through risk assessment and regulatory reform and all the other stuff, because we wanted to lighten up on the pharmaceuticals.”