Political Quotes

“In today's Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper of record, there is an article, FDA's Lobbying Questioning. Let me read a couple of paragraphs: ``In a rare lobbying campaign by a Federal agency, the Food and Drug Administration has formed an unofficial alliance with the pharmaceutical industry to urge House Members to vote against a bill that could flood the Nation with cheap prescription drugs from Canada and overseas. ``The FDA's extraordinary moves to kill the bill'' this article says, ``and the informal lobbying partnership between a Federal regulator and an industry it oversees, has coming under fire from several Members who support this legislation.'' Mr. Speaker, this may not be illegal, what the Food and Drug Administration has done, but it is certainly untoward, it is certainly unprecedented. In my 11 years as a Member of Congress I have never seen a Federal agency use its civil servants to lobby Congress so directly and so brazenly; and what is particularly outrageous is that they are doing that against American consumers, against America's elderly, against people who need lower-priced prescription drugs. The drug industry's contributions to the Bush administration and to far too many people in this Chamber unfortunately might be paying off.”