Peter Deutsch: “I would yield to no Member of this House in terms of my efforts to lower prescription drug costs for seniors in America.…”

“I would yield to no Member of this House in terms of my efforts to lower prescription drug costs for seniors in America. I support the efforts of the gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) to allow importation of drugs from outside the United States. However, this amendment is not the way to do it. If we look specifically at what this amendment does, it stops all funding for FDA in terms of importation. That is what the amendment actually does. That is a scary thing if we start to think about it. What our subcommittee has done is actually we went essentially to the borders, which is to the airport location where drugs come in. We have also had hearings about drug labs that are taking place right now producing some of these importations. This is not Novartis in Switzerland, this could be in some back alley somewhere in Mexico where it is not the drug, it is paint that is coming in. This amendment cuts out all FDA funding in terms of literally looking at the substance that would come into the United States of America, and zip, nothing. We could not review that if this amendment actually became law.”