Gregory Meeks: “as we enter this late night, I am reminded of a show: Things that make you say hmmm. When I think of just the title of…”

“as we enter this late night, I am reminded of a show: Things that make you say hmmm. When I think of just the title of this bill and what is referred reimportation of drugs, I say hmmm. Reimportation tries to give the implication that the drugs were manufactured here, gone over, and they are coming back here so, therefore, they are safe. If the issue of safety were not there, what would we be talking about? We are really talking about the reimportation of drugs from many a different country. The FDA, if you just look up at the Web site of the FDA, over the last 5 years they have only inspected labs, labs over the last 5 years. Yet, we say safety is not an issue. My esteemed colleague from Illinois talked earlier. He said he spoke with the former Secretary of the FDA, Donna Shalala; and she said if the FDA had additional money, maybe they could do this. Well, as indicated, there is no additional appropriations here because the implication is if the FDA does not have the money, they cannot ensure safety of the medicine. What money will go to the FDA? There is no appropriations to this bill. Just recently there was a situation that occurred in Florida where 19 individuals were indicted for distributing millions of dollars of counterfeit cancer, AIDS and other drugs. It occurs all over this country. If H.R. 2427 were to pass tonight, this is exactly what the Congress would be encouraging.”