The Public Record
Mr. Chairman, there is a term ``illegal diversion'' used twice in section 307. I just want to make clear that the authors have the intent to keep us from reimporting drugs that are being donated for AIDS in central Africa; that this will…
I rise today as a proud lifetime Member of the National Auctioneers Association. We want to recognize today National Auctioneers Day, which takes place annually on the third Saturday of April. This year it fell on April 19. And I suppose…
Daniel Webster said, ``God grants liberty only to those who love it and are always ready to guard and defend it.'' What you see here is a banner that was displayed and then signed by thousands of my constituents 2 weeks ago at a ``support…
a couple of weeks ago I came to the well of the House, and I said that the FDA had declared war on American consumers. Now the battle is joined. Mr. Speaker, I want to share a brochure, a little brochure that my staff and I have put…
What is being done by some of the big pharmaceutical companies is nothing short of shameful. I also say shame on us. I said the other day that Teddy Roosevelt must be rolling in his grave, the Republican President who believed in breaking…
a new drug war is starting. The first shots have been fired by the FDA. Those shots are being fired at American seniors. This is a dumb fight, dumbly fought. The Bush administration, which claims to support open markets, must decide…
Mr. Speaker, these are times that try our souls. These are decisions that all Members of Congress hope they will never have to make. All of us have in our own way prayed for the wisdom of Solomon. As the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde)…
it is a Cinderella story, and 1 year ago it looked as if that team would not even exist this year, and now here they are in the playoffs. And yesterday was another great story; fell behind early, came back to win in Oakland. Today my staff…
today I rise to honor the U.S.-Japan Maritime Youth Exchange Program. This program brings together high school age students from Japan and the United States for a 3-week program of travel and study in both countries. It was developed and…
Mr. Chairman, I want to agree, in part, with what the gentleman from Wisconsin just said. He said that there is not enough money to do all of the things that we want to do. That is exactly right, and that is why we have a budget, and that…
reclaiming my time, I will give all Members a medal and a kiss on the cheek. But the point is that this account has grown by more than double the inflation rate. All we are saying is let us take this account back to the 1996 levels…
that is my understanding, that almost any minute change, including changing the color of the tablet, if they say we are going to change the color of the tablet because it will increase the effectiveness of the drug or its shelf life, they…
I will give an even better example. Go down to the Mint here in the United States capital, just a few blocks down here. They print $1 bills. What I am saying is the difference between one sheet of $1 bills will be no different than the…
Zero. Not one. And let me say that we pay a very dear price for what apparently is no real protection.
I think the whole issue of reimportation will begin to force that issue. The question we are really asking today is how safe is safe. What is the FDA protecting us from? In their effort to make us absolutely safe from any imported drug…
Again, these are not my numbers, I am not making these things up. The only thing we have done in terms of real raw research is we had these drugs brought in Europe, and we found out what they were in Northfield, Minnesota, for the same…
I believe that is correct. That was a study that was done at the University of Minnesota, and I believe the gentleman's numbers are correct; that literally tens of thousands of Americans become seriously ill or die every year from not…
I know some of the most important drugs for diabetes have literally been off patent for several years, or had their patents renewed. A number of these drugs were developed 50 years ago and are still being sold at relatively high prices…
I mentioned this earlier. The Food and Drug Administration does keep pretty good records, and we know that thousands of people have become ill and died as a result of eating imported foods that were contaminated with some kinds of…
I think it was Glucophage that originally you had to take twice a day. There is a legitimate question whether or not they should have gotten an extra 17 years simply because they went from a two-a-day capsule to a once-a-day capsule.
Here is what is interesting. Again, this is not my number, but this is what outside experts have told us, that if you just do reimportation, just reimportation, allowing seniors or anyone to go to their local pharmacy and at least…
If a drug is developed mostly with taxpayer-funded research money through the NIH or other Federal grants, the taxpayers should get some kind of royalty and that is a question that we have not resolved. Frankly, we may need some help from…
according to these charts, we have not seen a dramatic reduction. But Claritin and Clarinex are a good example. Claritin is going off patent and so the drug company that manufactures it is in the process of converting people from Claritin…
That is just people over 65. That is just seniors. That does not include you and me and our kids and grandkids and whomever, all the other people.
If we are to do our job and effectively deal, we cannot sustain this kind of a chart. With 19 percent increases in the costs of prescription drugs and 3.5 percent increases in Social Security cost-of-living adjustments, that just cannot…
Politicians like Gilbert Gutknecht
