Jack Reed: “The industry has been responsive and reasonable, and we want to incorporate their best advice but also recognize that…”

“The industry has been responsive and reasonable, and we want to incorporate their best advice but also recognize that our ultimate responsibility is to the health of the American people. Something else, too, that the Senator alluded to was that this industry is becoming a very important part of our economy, not just nationally but locally. In Rhode Island we have several companies that are emerging as leaders in the industry. They offer not only extraordinary opportunities to help the American people, indeed, the people of the world, through medicine and devices, but also are becoming increasingly important economic powers within our communities--sources of jobs, employment and the types of activity that we certainly want to encourage. Part of our motivation today is to ensure that we do this right. We need to give them the kind of direction and incentives that will make them stronger competitors in the international marketplace, stronger sources of strength in the communities of America, but also make them responsible and accountable to the American people through appropriate regulation.”