Orrin Hatch: “As the Senate completes its consideration of H.R. 3580, the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007, I want…”

“As the Senate completes its consideration of H.R. 3580, the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007, I want to take this opportunity to commend publicly the Food and Drug Administration and especially to express support and appreciation to the dedicated FDA employees who work so hard to ensure the safety of our drug and food supply. They are led by a very capable and hard-working Commissioner, Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach. In our race to legislate and regulate, we often forget the impact of our actions on agency employees and their ability to safeguard American consumers. And so I want to take this opportunity to thank them for their work. While I will not belabor the point here, as the legislation makes clear, the agency is operating under severe funding constraints. That is a pressing public health issue of great priority and the Congress must work to address it in a meaningful way. With passage of this legislation today, we will end the protracted game of ``chicken'' that threatened the jobs of hundreds of FDA employees, the stability of the agency, and indeed the integrity of Congress, an institution which has been under public criticism for not doing its job. I am proud to support the passage of H.R. 3580.”