Date: 2005-09-28
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Brownies previous experience was being head of the Arabian Horse Association. I saw him attempt to defend himself at the hearing the other day. and he outlined his vast array of experience being tha assistant to a city manager. essentially a glorified intern. But. to me. I just feel like there needs to be a couple more lines on the resume when it comes to the man who directs the response of the Federal Government to natural disasters. Let us take if it was just the Congress or just Michael Brown heading up FEMA where the cronyism stopped. ThenI could say. you know. occasionally that is going to happen. But let us look at the gentleman who was appointed as the Deputy Commissioner for Medical and Scientific Affairs at the Food and Drug Administration. The Food and Drug Administration is charged with assuring the safety of everything from new vaccines and dietary supplements to animal feed and hair dye. They are the one that approve medicines and say whether medication can go on the market. So Mr. Scott Gottlieb was named the Deputy Commissioner. and he was 33yearsold. This is the 30something Group. so we are not going to be critical of that. But this is a person who got his medical degree at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. and his previous experience prior to taking this job at FDA. and they declared him a "noted authority" who had written "more than 300 policy and medical articles." his biography neglects the fact that many of those articles that he wrote criticized the FDA for being too slow to approve new drugs and too quick to issue warning letters when it suspects one already on the market might be unsafe. I think if you asked the family members and people whose loved ones died from taking Vioxx and some of the other inhibitors that people have had horrendous reactions and even deaths from because some of these drugs have been raced to the market too quickly before they have been fully vetted by the FDA. I think they might take issue with the fact that the person in charge of that is slightly less than qualified. His previous experience before that was to be the editor of a popular Wall Street newsletter. the ForbesGottlieb Medical Technology Investor. in which he offered such tips as "three biotech stocks to buy now." This is the deputy commissioner of the FDA in charge of medical and scientific affairs. If it was just the FDA. if we were going to stop there and it did not go further than that. I might be able to write it off. But then let us go travel over to another agency. We have another agency. the -Office of Management and Budget. in which an exlobbyist with minimal purchasing experience was overseeing $300 billion in spending. until his arrest last week. The person who was in charge of procurement for the Office of Management and Budget was responsible for $300 billion in spending until he got arrested. So you can see where we go. You peel back layer after layer after layer. So we are not casting aspersions randomly here.. We are not just being partisan. There is a culture of corruption that is pervasive. and. my god. we have an opportunity in the next 13 months to take our message to the American people and help tell them that we are going to come and restore their confidence. that we have got competence and we have got integrity and we know how to make sure we can expand access to health care. * Our priorities are straight. We know that the Federal Government can do something about gas prices. and not just have the President stand behind a podium and say. "You know. if you dont have to drive. please dont." That is their conservation policy. So before I go further than I should. I am going to turn it over to the gentleman from Ohio .