Richard Burr

Would you agree that accelerating the approval time presents us with the opportunity to put downward pressure on drug pricing?

We have on the Committee passed numerous fast-track initiatives, drugs, devices, so that we could introduce these into the marketplace quicker.

These programs work.

Many want to make your nomination about one small piece of Agency's past.

You have the courage to speak truth to power and you've demonstrated that courage time and time again.

You bring a clear-eyed understanding of the Agency's mission going forward.

I support your nomination for all of these reasons.

You may in fact be the most qualified nominee ever nominated for this role.

I think what we need right now is an individual that can bond those great diplomats within the State Department while carrying out the message of this administration's policies abroad.

I appreciate USTR's work on the section 301 investigation of China's Acts, Policies, and Practices Related to Technology Transfer, Intellectual Property, and Innovation.

We commend you for that. DHS needs to continue to rise to the challenge, with more resources if needed.

States should not be asked to stand alone against a nation.

However, we also need to have in place a solid deterrent, a deterrent to activities like this in the future.

I have joined Senator Warner in co-sponsoring the legislation now that we've finished this portion of our investigation.

The integrity of our election system is not a partisan issue and it's truly the heart of the strength of our democracy.

I think you're the right person at the right time.

I hope it is a trend that is going to become the norm and not the exception.

In 24 years, I have done a lot of hearings. I found it almost impossible to have an agency witness at the table who testified and the private panel comes up second, and get an agency person to stay in the room to listen to the private…

I think it is safe to say that countermeasures are difficult things to develop.

But we learned enough to know that we have no, or very little, surge capacity for an infectious disease of that magnitude.

You probably hit on the key thing that was, I think, the toughest thing to recognize, and that is: where is the Federal Government's responsibility at creating the incentive for people to create something that there is not a commercial…

But I think I can say on behalf of the Chairman, who is an appropriator, that this Committee has always said that we ought to appropriate at reauthorization levels.

We have shown a degree of vision in the past.

What can we do to meet what we do not know?

The time will not count against you.