Political Quotes

“I have in my hand the explanation and rationale for the budget request of FDA as it relates to tobacco. There is not a goal in here. There is not a goal in here. So if SAMHSA does not have a goal, then FDA does not have one. So if the teeth are not in the SAMHSA amendment, there are no teeth in the FDA amendment that the Senator from Iowa said there were. So it is a little bit confusing to me for him to say that FDA has a goal and they have teeth, and yet when you look at the explanation of the program, the rationale for the budget request, there is no goal in here, none whatsoever. None whatsoever. We hear a lot about health, but the enforcement is there. The enforcement under SAMHSA is there. The ability to take from the States is there--that is enforcement--to carry out and comply with the law. Now, this is double jeopardy. We have SAMHSA on one side telling the States what to do. They passed a law. Now we are trying to give FDA $34 million, taken directly from the farmers' pocket--whether you want to agree with that or not--and say FDA is going to get involved, also. It just does not seem fair. Then the $34 million that we have, that the Senator is asking for, is the budget request of the administration prior to the court case which threw out several of these items and, therefore, $34 million would not be needed anyhow. So, I say to my colleagues, tobacco is something that everybody wants to shoot at. But what we forget about is the farmer.”