William Tauzin: “Let me assure Members, they need to be afraid of this amendment. My mother, my 82-year-old mother, is a three-time…”

“Let me assure Members, they need to be afraid of this amendment. My mother, my 82-year-old mother, is a three-time cancer survivor and needs to be afraid of this amendment. This amendment effectively repeals an important consumer protection law designed to protect my mother and other consumers from bad drugs. Mr. Chairman, the FDA was created not to protect pharmaceutical companies, whether they are here in the United States or foreign countries. The FDA was created to protect consumers like myself, my mother and everybody's mother from bad, illegal, counterfeit, dangerous drugs. If Members do not believe there are people preparing those kinds of drugs and trying to send them to Members' mothers today, be afraid. Let me read from testimony before the Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing. This is about a U.S. Customs effort in Thailand called Operation Chokepoint. What they discovered in this kitchen cooking up drugs for America was 18.5 kilograms of powder steroids and Viagra. The processing took place on the counter of a filthy, vermin-infested kitchen and on the floor of a spare bedroom of the house. The tools and scales were never cleaned, and used for both steroids and Viagra.”