Greg Ganske: “Continuing the gentleman's analogy, Mr. Speaker, what the gentleman is saying is that there is not anyone in this House…”

“Continuing the gentleman's analogy, Mr. Speaker, what the gentleman is saying is that there is not anyone in this House who is going to propose that we cut off all imports of beef or vegetables or fruits that come into the United States. Nobody is proposing that. If there is a problem related to pathogens in meat or in some of those vegetables, that is why we have a USDA. That is why we have an inspection process. That is why we appropriate a certain amount of money. If there is a problem, then we will appropriate more funds for the inspection to make sure that our food and vegetables coming into the United States are safe. But as the gentleman has pointed out on prescription drugs, there is no known scientific study demonstrating a threat of injury to patients importing medications with a prescription from industrialized countries. When we went to the Food and Drug Administration last year, we said, ``If there is an increase in the flow of reimported drugs, what do you think you need to do to adequately inspect those to make sure there is not a problem?'' They told us, and we appropriated that. We can continue to do the same. The real question is, do we allow some competition to help lower the cost of prescription drugs.”