Richard Blumenthal

They need to be more specific.

I was unable to cast a vote yesterday on the motion to proceed to executive session for the consideration of treaty 112-7, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. I spent most of the day in Connecticut, touring the State…

We need to invest now or pay later, that there are measures we can take now to minimize the damage in the future

The Army Corps of Engineers should and must take an increased role in flood mitigation efforts.

Stamford offers an example of what I think you have heard from a number of my colleagues about the use of hurricane barriers.

Senator Blumenthal was very specific, showing one example of where a million dollars can save $20 million-plus.

We are mutually supportive and reinforcing, as we are to responses that have been done to other disasters

An investment of less than a million dollars would ensure a saving of $25 million in avoided recovery costs.

Your job--and it is uniquely and always the job of the Federal Government to establish standards that protect the public health and safety where there is a national impact.

I'm suggesting to you that the jurisdiction ought to be asserted as widely and effectively as possible and that there be no ambiguity in the law as there is now.

I would suggest to you that the jurisdictional question ought to be resolved very simply and starkly. If a company manufactures drugs, you regulate them now, do you not?

I would just suggest that you be preventive with a capital P, and that you regard these renegade, outlier drug manufacturers as the threat to public health which, clearly, they are.

The Congress really should be meeting its obligation to provide those resources that are necessary for the tasks that we're all implying you should have been carrying out.

There was no warning letter ever sent.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to pursue, Mr. Chairman, your questions at the very outset here about the Ameridose matter.

Those decisions that so swayed the FDA to avoid asserting its authority and jurisdiction were also unclear, limited, and contested.

Unfortunately, having reviewed many of these documents, having spoken to experts in the field, having reviewed the history here, the conclusion is inescapable that this tragedy could and should have been prevented by more effective…

I do think that we should know, and I would like to see that as part of new legislation if we would do it.

Clearly, serious, egregious violations of basic standards were found by your inspectors in 2008 and then again in 2010.

I think that a lot of the questioning that you're seeing here reflects a skepticism on the part of Congress and the public about whether the FDA will use this enhanced authority more effectively than it has used the authority that it has…

So if I can sort of distill your answer into one sentence, the answer to the question depends on the plan document currently.

I am sure that others have told you, you know yourselves, that service on the district court is crucially important to our justice system.

You will impact the lives, I would dare say, of more people directly than a lot of people in this body do.

I think the reservation that you have expressed has been articulated, at least in my experience, in State legislatures when these issues arose.

And that may be true in a variety of criminal cases where the prosecution has the continuing burden of proof...