Byron Dorgan: “Well, Mr. President, the second-degree amendment that was attached then dealt with safety and so on. What happened was…”

“Well, Mr. President, the second-degree amendment that was attached then dealt with safety and so on. What happened was, the Department of Health and Human Services and the FDA indicated they would not implement the law, so it was not implemented. But it is important to point out that this piece of legislation dealt with the importation of prescription drugs from many other countries. We have narrowed this amendment to the country of Canada, to allow the reimportation of drugs only from Canada. And because Canada has an identical chain of custody to this country, there can be no question as to the safety of allowing licensed distributors and pharmacists to be able to access, from a licensed pharmacy in Canada, FDA-approved prescription drugs. So that is why I do not have a problem accepting the second-degree amendment offered by the Senator from Mississippi. I cannot think of anybody at HHS or the FDA who can make a credible case that there is a safety issue by allowing a licensed American pharmacist to access prescription drugs from a licensed pharmacy in Canada. There is no safety issue there. It is gone, finished. So we, I hope, will adopt this. I believe there is no justification for HHS or the Food and Drug Administration to fail to implement this legislation.”