John B. Breaux: “I plan to vote for final passage of this Agriculture appropriations bill because I think it is very important and there…”

“I plan to vote for final passage of this Agriculture appropriations bill because I think it is very important and there are many very important things in it dealing with agriculture, which is with what we would think an Agriculture appropriations conference report should deal. I highlight, however, one thing that I think is very bad public policy; that is, the question of an amendment to this bill allowing for the importation of foreign drugs manufactured in foreign countries, under foreign standards, to be imported into the United States under the guise of ``this is the solution'' or even a partial solution to the high costs of prescription drugs and the unavailability of prescription drugs under our Medicare program for the 40 million senior citizens in this country who need prescription drugs. Many people said when the bill left the Senate that this provision that was added was a sham. I thought it was a sham when it left and it has come back and it is a worse sham than when it left. This is ``Son of Sham,'' or a double sham, in the sense that this makes absolutely no sense.”