Tom Harkin

I was just reminded by my staff that we change drugs all the time for kids--change them all the time--for dosages and recommended treatments and things, for drugs.

Do I want safe products? Absolutely. For me, the question is who decides.

I don't know where they'd get the money to hire these high-price lawyers from these big law firms.

FDA needs adequate appropriations.

So, the way I see it--before Riegel, the device manufacturers didn't know if they'd win or lose in a tort claim, right?

To me, that choice is clear. We need safe products and we need innovation, and the best way to achieve both goals is not through litigation created by this bill, but through a strong, well-funded FDA.

So, why are medical devices different than drugs?

You're saying that a device manufacturer, like this Medtronic defibrillator, when it went through the whole premarket approval and everything, and it was approved, later on they made a change to it, but it didn't have to go back and be…

More than 30 years ago, Senator Kennedy championed the Medical Device Amendments, a bill that gave the Food and Drug Administration long-overdue authority to regulate medical devices.

It was inevitable that something like this would happen.

The Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions will come to order for this hearing on protecting patients from defective medical devices.

This bill is really about real people who have been let down--let down, sometimes catastrophically.

Senator Kennedy, as he did 30 years ago, is fighting to ensure that consumers are safe.

The prevention of childhood obesity must be a top priority and successful outcomes will be a sure fire way to prevent huge costs to individuals and taxpayers later.

It ain't going to happen. OK?

I can assure you they will be.

We provide the leadership. We say this is what we are going to do. We are going to be very aggressive in this, in the United States.

We are going to make sure.

There is a sense among a lot of us that there is a built-in bias within EPA against biofuels.

I take it from your testimony, Mr. Secretary, that you actually feel pretty bullish about this...

We think something needs to be done, and we want to be helpful in that debate.

We are going to start the process of having the secretary have jurisdiction over all the food in the school.

I think it worked well.

I hope we can get that done before the end of the year.

I commit to you to do everything in my power to make sure we use it wisely, effectively and get broadband out to every part of the country that needs it, that we can afford to with the amount of resources you provided.