Orrin Hatch: “I wish to speak on the importance of maintaining a strong Food and Drug Administration. Today we approved the user fee…”

“I wish to speak on the importance of maintaining a strong Food and Drug Administration. Today we approved the user fee reauthorizations for the FDA. We have done the important work of passing these essential user fee agreements out of the committee and have now debated and passed them on the Senate floor. The HELP Committee is filled with strong personalities. These personalities reflect the passion and diversity of opinion of millions across our nation today. While we may disagree on certain policies, most of us can agree that funding the drug, device, and biologic centers of the FDA is essential. Our future scientific endeavors require a strong FDA that communicates openly with the industry that it regulates, and this agreement sets up protocols to achieve that goal. A strong FDA also requires clear steps for product review, and only through such deliberative actions can we bring more competition and clarity to our drugs, devices, and biologic products. I have championed multiple provisions in this bill, but there are two I would like to highlight today. First, there is the counterfeit and diverted drug language. This language makes importation neither harder nor easier. In fact, it doesn't change importation laws at all. Rather, it protects and strengthens the drug supply chain by simply increasing penalties for criminals that choose to divert drugs into the United States or sell counterfeit drugs.…”