Norvell Emerson: “I rise in support of the Gutknecht amendment. Let me say as one of the Members of the subcommittee who tried to shepherd…”

“I rise in support of the Gutknecht amendment. Let me say as one of the Members of the subcommittee who tried to shepherd through last year's reimportation bill, I find it incredulous that every single person who has spoken today against the Sanders amendment or the Gutknecht amendment voted for both of them last time. Now, of course, there was not a recorded vote on the amendment of the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Gutknecht) but there was the amendment of the gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), or rather the amendment of the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley) which was identical to the amendment of the gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and every person who was in favor of it is opposed at this time and that is interesting, because I understand PHRMA, the trade association for the pharmaceutical companies, has spent millions of dollars this week advertising against this. Needless to say, this is a very critical issue. I have constituents who have to go to Canada to get drugs for their children, one of whom has a very severe form of epilepsy. This woman is a single mom and not able to afford to buy this drug in the United States because in Canada, of course, it is only a third of what it costs here in the United States. The Gutknecht amendment simply allows the reimportation of American-manufactured drugs, in approved, safe FDA facilities, to be brought back here without punishment.”