Orrin Hatch: “to me it is simply unconscionable that the Food and Drug Administration, one of the best little agencies in Government…”

“to me it is simply unconscionable that the Food and Drug Administration, one of the best little agencies in Government, has gone leaderless for such a period of time. Here we have an agency that governs, by some estimates, 25 cents out of every consumer dollar, and yet we treat it as a stepchild. We do not provide it with the funding it needs. We allow it to exist without a confirmed commissioner for months and months on end, for repeated periods. And yet we expect it to be the vital consumer watchdog agency it was intended to be. When you think about what this agency does, what the daily business of the FDA is, you can see how dire the situation really is. This is an agency that makes certain the drugs and medical devices we use are safe and effective, that the cosmetics, dietary supplements, and over-the-counter medications we count on are sold safely, with truthful and nonmisleading claims. This agency regulates animal drugs and radiological devices and so much more. Yet, time after time, it does without a confirmed commissioner. And this is the absolutely wrong time for that to happen.…”