and again we're waiting for senators to come back to the floor here of the senate working this week working today on this food and drug administration program bill right now the matter at hand an amendment to end amendment a second degree amendment offered by senator  and the deals with an amendment offered by senator dorgan this talking about senator dorgan cement that which allows for importation of prescription drugs into the u s and the amendment to that amendment would require the health and human first human services secretary to certify the safety and cost effectiveness of any drugs imported into the u s checking the house the house earlier today passing hate crimes legislation they're finished with the legislation no legislative business for the day that bill would increase penalties for certain hate crimes the white house earlier issuing a statement saying that should that bill make it seem that the president's task he will likely veto will be to wait so we will continue to watch it for you on our web site c span dot org and here on our c span networks one last program note starting in about ten or fifteen minutes we plan live coverage on c span three of queen elizabeth's visit to richmond virginia her state visit getting under way shortly and we'll have live coverage beginning at about four o'clock eastern on c span three and as we wait senators to come back to the floor we're going to bring you today's white house briefing tell you as much as we can with press secretary tony sno i'm not going to characterize it again both sides have not had an opportunity to express their views and exchange views and all that sort of thing but i don't think you know what we've all agreed to do is to conduct these in a way that i going to allow those involved to go ahead and do their business and not to try to litigate through the process but allow them to go ahead and move toward a bill that is going to meet the requirements the president laid out and at same time to give the forces what they need i'm not going to characterize period are going to be times and certainly there will be phone conversations i know rob has been in contact with some people so there will be some meetings where we have one or one two or all three of the negotiators on capitol hill but there are certainly that is a question properly and at the pentagon but also as you know the pentagon is allowed to get into to making characterizations on operational matters let's just put it this way we know that already there is a requirement of transferring money from certain accounts to others to make sure that we have simmers the american patients that there is more than just the approval they acknowledge meant by the food and drug administration that a drug is safe and effective that there's a mechanism to post approval as americans across the country begin to take those medications that we are watching for potentially any adverse reactions that that new population and increased number of americans taking it might detect in an effort to make sure that if we see the signals of that unintended consequence that we look more thoroughly at the benefits of that drug being on the market when i left for sponsor of the importation amendment suggested that slaps wouldn't beneficial to anybody and the fact is i don't think it's the role of a member of the united states senate unless you're d to suggest that you practice medicine there are positions that found that for the advantages of lax while it was on the market was advantageous to the thousands if not hundreds of thousands of patients i'm sure those patients are back on ibuprofen napper and other products that might cause significant gastro challenges form and that's why their doctor switched from originally because they needed relief of pain well a lot of things have been said and the senator from north dakota said that we should stay focused on the facts i want to come to the floor for a few minutes just to talk about some of the facts many of us have suggested that when a year ago we created part of the medicare which is a prescription drug benefit for individuals in this country that are medicare eligible that we lessened the problem that many seniors expressed and that's their inability to buy pharmaceutical products just recently an analysis published by a r p the socialization of retired persons shows that the new new medicare drug benefit saves seniors more money than buying pharmaceuticals from canada and there's there's a new one for those that are on board states the a a r p the authority because they think they certainly had a loud voice before part d said that drugs from canada are actually more expensive than what part d has been able to negotiate let me say that in every state we have multiple choices seniors make their choice they participate in a plan it's a private sector plan but they're basically for large benefit managers and they negotiate price and what they've done is they've been able to negotiate a price that even takes lead it what canada could so all the drugs at retail for this a  and found that many who choose the least expensive plan that meets their prescription drug needs this is under par de will still pay less for those drugs then they would purchasing them from canada so it's not the cadillac plan that seniors would have to choose to get less expensive drugs in the united states than from canada in fact with the least expensive plan they are plenty of valuated that they would get a cheaper price on their pharmaceuticals by having part d access you know the u s pharmacy where they can feel fairly confident if not totally confident that the product is in fact what they thought it was just recently in troy michigan an indictment charging nineteen individuals would operate in a global racketeering company conspiracy was unsealed in federal court announced to the united states attorneys from yesterday michigan the indictment alleges that portions of the profits made from illegal enterprises were in fact funding hezbollah this is  foreign terrorist organization by the way nine of the individuals that were arrested the indictment charges that between one thousand nine hundred six and two thousand and four this group work together in a criminal enterprise to traffic in contraband cigarettes counter flag counterfeit zig zag rolling papers and counterfeit bag or so the claims that we made on the floor i believe the senator from south from north dakota when he says we have done everything we can in this bill to the public of the safety and integrity of the product though there is nothing in the bill that forbids anybody who wants to circumvent the law in other words make counterfeit drugs make drugs that have no active ingredient make drugs that look just like those drugs that are approved by the f d a whether they're via adverse local or and to find a way for those to come to the marketplace it's not something that the f d a today or any f d a prior has said that they can place for those members who have been interplay involved since september the eleventh two thousand and one at understanding better what our ability is to have a full knowledge of what comes in this country some of us have actually gone to the washington dulles airport we've seen the customs officials go through the bags and bags of pharmaceutical products that come into this country it is impossible without a chemical test to determine whether one tablet is authentic now or the next one is counterfeit whether one has an active ingredient or whether one is a minus all active ingredients there's been several operations conducted in this country that deal with the cyber trafficking of pharmaceutical products fictitious pharmacies these are companies that prey on individuals that are soley looking for low priced pharmaceuticals they think they're dealing with reputable pharmacies around the world yet there is no pharmacy at the other end of the internet  crux they prey on the people who look for pricing and in fact as some of those groups have been rolled up by our law enforcement what we find is that the products that were coming in had substantial deficiencies in things like active ingredients now what happens when a patient takes a product that the active ingredient doesn't exist the illness that they have in effect for an individual who might have high cholesterol and they've now been put on a drug that will lower that cholesterol because they are susceptible to heart problems that no active ingredient means they have cholesterol build up in their veins and without intervention the likelihood is they might have a heart attack they might die unfortunately when they take that drug that they think is real but it has no active ingredient unfortunately they don't know until they have a medical incident so let me make this point to all my colleagues if the purpose here is to lower the cost of health care they were taking a mighty big risk because in fact what we may be doing is we may be right raising the cost of health care in america and with a disregard for the labs of the end of it was it might be effective when i came to the floor earlier today i mentioned that last year alone one point seven million tablets i think that's surpassed though by the fact that last year as we were in the heat of this new potential pandemic flu h five n one the bird flu and we aggressively in this country then and still today are trying to come with a vaccine and with other countermeasures that might be able to defeat or or minimize the impact of the bird flu companies around the world started to look for tamiflu as a successful counter measure individuals in this country search outside of the country because the supply was so limited well customs agents have intercepted more than fifty shipments of counterfeit tamiflu is an antiviral drug that is specifically designed to be stockpiled for the present pandemic flu you see my point is this counterfeiting the trafficking of pharmaceuticals exists today anything that loosens the regulations on access to these pharmaceuticals invite more people to participate in gaming the u s consumer and for that fact the global patient this is not something that's limited the united states and clearly the adulterated product now unfortunately you don't know real quick whether there's an active ingredient in that but you won't know if it's in fact oh cholesterol lowering drugs are one of the things that really does affect long term health of the american people a study published in the medical journal science found that when a cholesterol lowering drug manufactured in the united states was compared just to generic copies bought over the internet from mexico thailand india brazil but there were differences in the blend of the uniformity of the bland on error that could dilute their effect on patients authors concluded that clinically this would have assumed this would have significance for a patient who was prescribed a half a tablet per day which is not an uncommon practice so to that senior at home that  suggested increase the amount of milligrams of active ingredient so that i can cut my pills and take half one day and half the next day because there are ways to maximize what this report found published in the medical journal science was that unadulterated product that doesn't reach the correct consistency throughout the pill might on one side provide the active ingredient and might on the other side not provide any active ingredient whatsoever it could affect the dissolving right which could affect the of affect or bioavailability these are stories that come right out of medical journals this is not about armor suitable companies and how powerful they are in washington this is about why the focus of the united states senate is on the safety and the well being of the american people this is about whether in fact we're going to maintain the gold standard of the food and drug administration or whether we're going to accept the standards of other countries in the world where their their bar is not quite as high where they're willing to accept less innovation just to receive less in price i'm not sure that's a good trade off for the country now clearly the senator from north dakota has the votes potentially to win this i don't find that to comforting myself i spent two years of my  life actively involved in the one nine hundred ninety seven modernization of food and drug administration and i work with people on the right the left in the middle i work with people that want to do things at the f d a that today we still haven't done thank goodness but there's still people that want to do it but we all came together to uphold one thing in that process not to lower the bar not to lower the standards that we asked companies to reach with their products for us to put that f d a stamp of approval safe and effective on their products sold outside the united states that could never pass the application process in this country and i know that the senator from north dakota does not in his bill allow those products to come in he limits it to f d a approved products so my focus is solely on the product that is f d a approved in this country but that has been manufactured in a way that either provides a little active ingredient no active ingredient and potentially harmful components found in that in that  or whatever the dosage might be it's my hope that we'll continue to talk about this issue but when i left before i thought it was important to go look at some of the articles to see if this is still a real problem it's a problem today it will be a problem tomorrow and if we pass this i think it will be a bigger problem in the future it's a problem that is involved in funding terrorism around the world it's a problem that  not go away but at least today we're able to control it and we're able to control it in a way that has a smaller effect on the quality of life of the people in this country i think that's why they have us here but we'll continue the debate we'll see where we end i think it's a i think it's important enough that we spend  days if it takes to debate this legislation and to make sure that everybody in this country understands what's at stake i yield f north dakota madam president we may offer a few comments about this subject my my colleague has spoken on it several times and as i've indicated we ought to deal from the same set of  facts this is not let me emphasize again it is not importing the standards of other countries with respect to the safety of prescription drugs it does not do that so i want to make sure everybody understands what the facts are everyone is entitled to their own opinion not everyone's entitled to their own set of facts this does not import standards from some other country into this country with respect to the safety of prescription drugs this is simply a question of whether we want to continue to have a approved drugs made in an f d a approved plant and is a plant inspected by our food and drug administration producing medicine put in a bottle that is approved by our food and drug administration and sold in this country and the same medicine in the same bottle sold in france sold in italy sold in germany sold in canada sold in england to have the united states consumer pay the highest prices of all of those countries is that fair to the u we're not able to import safely say we're not able to import rather prescription drugs because there's a prohibition against it the only person that can import the only entity that can import a prescription drugs is the manufacturer lipitor or i've held up two bottles  with or on the floor today lipitor is made in ireland they send it all around the world where they send it to canada and they send us the united states the bottle looks the same the pill looks the same because it is the same and it's sold in the same chain of custody canada and the u s is only one difference the u s consumer is treated to double the price when they purchase their let that or is that fair should we pay twice the price for an f d a approved drugs i don't think so my colleagues have said that there are counterfeiting issues well all of the stories that are recounted about counterfeiting issues are occurring understood a schematic of prescription drug sales in america this has nothing to do with in fact the legislation that i've offered is about just place that would make the supply of prescription drugs in this country and the supply that would come into this country under reimportation much much much safer because we have put in place safety procedures that have previously been blocked here in the congress establishing certain numbers on the supply of prescription drugs samples of the supply of prescription drugs to be held back by those that are manufacturing and moving the prescription prescription drugs establishing a pedigree for all of these drugs in the bottles in which they travel it is much safer it will be much safer for the domestic supply in addition to the supply of import prescription drugs that's the point we make i i suppose that people will be tired of hearing me say that i respect those that have a different opinion but i would prefer if they would just stand up and say you know something here's my situation i just think the american people ought to pay twice the cost for let's put our because i believe that that's a pricing strategy that works for my constituents i don't hear anybody saying that of course they stand up here and they say there's going to be big safety issues or my colleague who s in earlier speech this morning said that this amendment would allow drugs to come in to be imported in this country from all over the world i'm sorry that's just not right that's not debating the bill that exists we're not letting drugs in from all over the world only from countries that would qualify that meet the safety standards these would only be f d a approved drugs and they would only be drugs that are retained in the chain of custody with a pedigree attached to the drugs there are no safety issues unless one thinks it's unsafe for the pharmaceutical industry not to make the profits they currently make they perhaps would see some small amount of profit if they passed part of the lower cost along to the the consumer side and maybe perhaps the industry could do a little less advertising just a little less advertising and when we turn on the television at night and sit down at the end of a long day and you you see somebody with driving in a convertible with beautiful people in a park under a tree someplace and the sun is setting it's a beautiful appearance and they say you know these people are feeling good because of medicine they're taking you should be asking your doctor whether you might want to take some of that get some of this fairly good you know get some of this medicine sunshines get to right and convertibles feel better hang around beautiful people the way advertising works i guess i've talked about the purple pill  say ask your doctor is the purple pill right for you i don't know what the purple pill is but i almost feel like asking a doctor is a purple pill right for me all of this promotion and advertising maybe they could back off just a little bit of that and reduce the prices to the american consumer but that's not the strategy this strategy on pricing prescription drugs is that almost every country has some kind of limitation on what can be priced with suspected prescription drugs except the united states of america and here it's katie bar the door whatever they want we do have price controls in america no doubt imposed by the government price controls by the pharmaceutical industry now this is a fine industry they've got men and women working trying to an unlock the mystery of diseases and find ways to produce medicine as it will manage diseases i admire all of that i say congratulations to them but i have a serious disagreement with them disagreement with them on pricing strategy they're just wrong to believe that they have to charge the highest prices for american consumer sessions to fact they're wrong about that they say well it's the only way we can do research and development that's not true at all that's not true substantial portion of research and development is done by the taxpayer through the national institutes of health and others and the product of that is turned over to the pharmaceutical manufacturers in the term of intellectual property that's developed and they manufacture drugs and good for them i know they also the substantial research on their own that i appreciate that i just don't appreciate the pricing strategy because i think it is unfair to the american consumer i don't know how many people i have talked to over the years who  told me of their problems i'm eighty years old i have heart disease i have diabetes i think all kinds of medicines they say but i can't afford it doctor says and dickinson north dakota one night i've got this wonderful woman this patient who has breast cancer pretty aggressive form of breast cancer and says well look you've got you've got to be taking this medicine to prevent a reoccurrence when we have surgery you've got to take this medicine to prevent a recurrence of breast cancer and she said what is it costing tells you she said i can't possibly do that i can't possibly take that i don't have the money to do that i can't buy that medicine there's that matter well it sure matters to the person whose life is at stake next ten years fifty billion dollars most of it to consumers for lower drug prices that's just a fact and it it is not to in any way injure the safety of our prescription drug supply it will affect enhance it for magically by establishing pedigrees with respect to the movement of prescription drugs in this country and into this country i mean that's a fact as well i said this morning i just i hate to lose debates and not having it happens all the time on the floor of the senate because someone is debating a bill that i didn't introduce that welcome to do that and you know if it's attractive maybe i want to do some day but i'm not interested in having a debate with somebody that wants to reformulate the legislation that i've introduced this legislation is about safety it seems to me make a stronger assertive or a valid case that there are safety issues again i i don't have problems with those who come to the floor saying let's continue the current system but i think the current system is wrong and they have a right to to advocate for the current system but the current system is unfair to the american consumer in my judgment i want us to have the opportunity to have good health care and opportunities to be able to access miracle drugs the opportunity to use those miracle drugs to manage diseases so that you can stay out of an acute care bed which is the cost of this health care in our country but i just think it becomes almost a health care rationing in our country when we say you know what we will ignore the situation that exists in this global economy in which the american consumer pays one price and consumers in virtually every other country pay a lower price for the prescription drugs that i think is a horrible disadvantage to consumers in our country some will say well you know now we have a part medicare which offers prescription drug benefits to senior citizens and yes that's true does it has what has been defined around here only in the lexicon of politics as a donut hole i mean only in the political system do we use those kind of descriptions but it has a kind of a circumstance where you reach a certain level and then there's no drug coverage on up from that level and you know i obviously the prescription drug part d for medicare is helpful to senior citizens no question about that but it certainly isn't perfect because there's a substantial portion of it which prescription drugs are not covered and at that point senior citizens also reaching the declining income years of their lives senior citizens at that point are finding it very difficult to purchase their prescription drugs are present there is there is much to say about this issue i know there are some who worry that offering this amendment on prescription drug pricing to this underlying bill the f reauthorization act injures the underlying bill i support the underlying bill i think my colleague senator kennedy and senator enzi have done some really good work i support that work that may say and i know they know this is perfectly appropriate to offer this amendment on this bill because this is where it belongs this is exactly where you'd offered a member of this type no one should express surprise about that so we offer the amendment and then we file cloture so that we could actually get to a vote on it and all of a sudden you know it's like the circus left town you know they pull up the tent stakes fold up the tent everybody's gone all of a sudden we can't vote anymore why i guess they're upset my amendment is now in order to be voted on and they say you know i don't know we just can't do that i would be willing to as i have indicated before i would be willing to offer this amendment in a different form of the same amendment but in a circumstance where i had an agreement to be able to bring it up for hours of debate for example a couple of minutes that would be offered by the other side i have the right to offer second degree amendments we go to a vote decide will the united states senate pass a proposition that would give us an opportunity to re import f d a approved drugs from other countries that are identical to the drugs we now purchase except at a lower price i'd be happy to agree with others that would give us that time in that circumstance so that we could have this vote i don't need to have the vote today or monday or tuesday if i have an agreement that will be able to get the vote at some moment this vote has been stalled a lot on long while senator frist when majority leader standing right back here at the end of this while at about one o'clock in the morning in exchange for my releasing a hold on the nomination of dr mcclellan indicated to me and then put in the congressional record in the senate that we were going to have action on this kind of legislation turns out it never happens senator frist of course is now gone for whatever reason it never happened i spoke at great length to him about these issues but it didn't happen so  this is an opportunity for us to advance this legislation is the right place and the right time this is thirty three co sponsors john mccain is a co sponsor ted kennedy's a co sponsor and this is exactly where it should have been offered and was and now all of a sudden apparently there's some kind of gastric disc dress because we had a cloture vote and we prevailed on the torture vote that would say all right let's move to have votes on this amendment so my hope is to the first of all well we might form opinions on this amendment that we could all coalesce around some central set of facts that would represent what the members does and says and second that we could begin on behalf of the american people to make some movement here and to begin to have votes i also hope that as i listen to further debate on the floor that we can stick to what the moment is it is not to reimport lower priced f d a approved prescription drugs from everywhere in the country it limits it to those areas where we have safe and effective supplies a prescription drugs so i hope we can just get all the facts straight this amendment has a lot to commend itself and i would i believe the american people by eighty percent seventy five eighty percent support this i've seen poll after poll after poll where the american people believe it is wrong it is unfair for them to be charged the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs why on earth are they drive ten miles between two drugstores one on the canadian side of the border one of the american side of the border only to find that the same medicine the same pill put in the same bottle made by the same company f bush mark the fourth anniversary of his announcement that major combat operations in iraq have ended by vetoing war funding forces are now well into their fifth year of combat operations longer than the u s was involved in world war two and the time is overdue to examine and update u s policy in iraq the iraqi people at the point of a gun he was wrong in two thousand and to win he sought authorization to go to war and he is wrong today however now that the president has insisted on continuing down this failed path it is our responsibility to discuss alternatives that can become law their congress is not an a t m spitting out begins whenever the president requested it is a policy that the congress and the congress shall have power to provide for the common this trip it is the congress yes it is the congress that has given these sole power to declare war congress is sworn to raise and support i mean this congress and the people of the united states have a right to expect clarity in our mission and a foreseeable and to this conflict the situation in iraq military force in iraq because the president himself said this is not the war we entered in iraq but it is the war we are  and consider after expressing support in two thousand and two and early two thousand and three president bush made his case to congress and to the american people for the invasion of iraq he's stating goals included the elimination of the weapons of mass destruction programs that iraq was thought no weapons of mass destruction were found in iraq not just weapons that could threaten the national security of the but also no weapons of mass destruction of the any description should hussein and his government are gone the iraqi people have elected a new government the u s military has achieved success in iraq and that success has vetoed by the president over four hundred and fifty billion dollars has been provided by congress executed this war madam president the october eleventh two thousand and two authorization to use force and run its course it is time iraq when he needs to make that case to congress and to the american public are go continuing presence in iraq is not supported by the people or the congress the president must first redefine their goals and submit his plan to achieve them to a thorough and open debate in the congress and throughout the country that success will do huge s without the support of the people their sons and daughters are being asked to die in the sand and yes the sand of iraq i proposed october eleventh two thousand and seven as the expiration date for the two thousand and two authorization and that the president s et new authorization from the elected representatives of the people in congress and how he had to intend to achieve  president bush the best deal support for is plan without the support of the public and the congress we should no longer be in this fight it sees a further role for u s troops he should articulate it and seek consensus for a change of mission i hope that my colleagues from both sides  calling on the president to make the case for the new situation in which we find ourselves my proposal does not set limits on troop levels not prevent them from doing what is necessary to preserve it to protect themselves and us personnel who may have set their sights on the u what it does is stop our troops from fighting in an essay in an iraqi civil war after october eleventh two thousand and seven unless the president our president receives a mandate from the american public and the u s congress let us try to give the president a chance to and die a fresh start could help to change the dynamic in this country a concerted effort by the white house to goals and opportunities in iraq could watch a path to progress a new debate in congress could result of confusion and contention about violence in iraq we need a plane to reach out to other countries in the area who share our interest in seeking stability whether just proposal is considered on the supplemental on the defense authorization bill or on the defense appropriations bill i ask cooler heads to see the possibilities  beginning a new assessment of where we are and where we're going to ask for a cease fire and a political war in washington for the sake of our troops and for the sake of our country