Political Quotes

“I thank the chairman of the subcommittee for yielding me the time. Madam Speaker, this bill is really important. It would provide funding for our critical food, nutrition, and rural development agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration. What we are really asking is to keep the government open. There may be disagreement about the wall and some aspects of border security, but that shouldn't hold hostage these important spending bills that keep the government going. I wanted to talk about the FDA. The FDA is one of our most critical public health agencies overseeing food, medical products, cosmetics, and tobacco, products that account for 20 cents of every dollar spent by U.S. consumers. As a result of the Trump government shutdown, the FDA has had to cease a number of important activities that keep our Nation's food and drugs safe for all Americans. For example, the FDA has stopped conducting nearly two-thirds of the domestic food inspections that the agency typically conducts, putting our Nation's food supply and food safety system at risk. This comes on the heels of a multi-State national recall of romaine lettuce in November and December. This stoppage should be alarming to all of us. The FDA has halted routine inspections at food, drug, device, and compounding facilities. It stopped accepting any new medical product applications unless the application is within a small subset that did not require a user fee.…”