On the Senate floor, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) warned against confirming an FDA nominee.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Mr. President, in separate place of the record, I would like to make the following statement.
00:06The Food and Drug Administration is one of the most important agencies in the federal
00:09government and the world.
00:12Every day, the FDA makes life and death decisions, whether to approve a new cancer drug, initiate
00:18a recall of contaminated food, or keep deadly tobacco products out of the hands of our children.
00:26This agency, the Food and Drug Administration, oversees 20 percent of the entire American
00:31economy, nearly $3 trillion in product and services on a budget, the FDA budget, of $6
00:39billion annually.
00:40Yesterday, I met with President Trump's FDA nominee, Dr. Marty McCary.
00:46It was a good discussion.
00:49There are areas where I imagine we would be able to work together, such as promoting healthy
00:54food or addressing deceptive direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertisements you see everywhere
00:59on television.
01:01These commercials overstate the benefit about the latest wonder drugs, rattling off side
01:05effects so quickly you can hardly hear them, but always keeping you in dark about one crucial
01:11element on each one of these drugs, how much does it cost?
01:16My bill, which I introduced with Senator Grassley, Republican of Iowa, would end big pharma's
01:21secrecy and require these ads to show a price tag.
01:26Just that simple.
01:27They declare the price and they advertise it.
01:29I appreciated Dr. McCary's comments that a medication can give a patient false hope if
01:34it's not affordable, but let me share my concerns with Dr. McCary's nomination in general.
01:42The FDA requires a commissioner who's willing to withstand a lot of pressure, from big pharma,
01:49big tobacco, maybe even the president, to protect public health.
01:54We cannot afford an FDA commissioner who gets chewed up by Elon Musk's chainsaw or stands
02:01idly by as RFK Jr. pushes his deadly bias against vaccines.
02:07To safeguard and regulate the food we eat and the drugs we use, we need a leader of
02:12the Food and Drug Administration with the courage to say no.
02:18Cigarettes are responsible for more than 480,000 deaths each year.
02:23They were responsible for my father's death.
02:26So when I came to Congress, I vowed to fight this entity.
02:32While we have succeeded in reducing youth smoking rates, anyone who thought big tobacco
02:36would disappear was mistaken.
02:39They rebranded with flashing new products, vaping, e-cigarettes, and they follow the
02:44same playbook they used to drive sales of Marlboro's back in the 80s, target kids.
02:51For years, the Food and Drug Administration utterly failed.
02:55This is during the Biden administration.
02:57As a Democrat, I'm reluctant to say it, but it's true and I'm going to say it.
03:02For years, the Food and Drug Administration utterly failed to protect children from a
03:06lifetime addiction fueled by e-cigarettes, many of which are sold by the largest tobacco
03:11companies.
03:12Under the law, a vaping product is required to first prove to the FDA that its product,
03:20e-cigarette, is, quote, appropriate for the protection of public health.
03:25That's a requirement under law.
03:27They have to prove that before they can sell on the market in the United States legally.
03:32It didn't happen under the previous Food and Drug Administration.
03:35Instead, thousands of dangerous, highly addictive e-cigarettes illegally flooded the market
03:42without FDA review, hooking a generation of kids.
03:47By law, FDA is required to remove all unauthorized tobacco products from the market.
03:52In fact, it could do so today.
03:55So the question is, will the new president's FDA nominee follow the science and the law
04:00to protect our kids, or will he align with the tobacco corporations that peddled this
04:05poison?
04:07At the same time, President Trump and Elon Musk have fired thousands of federal health
04:11workers.
04:13Before you run off celebrating efficiency, let me tell you who was terminated.
04:18120 cancer researchers at the National Institutes of Health who are running clinical trials
04:25for new cures.
04:27Disease detectives at the Centers for Disease Control who help identify and respond to outbreaks
04:32of new virus.
04:34Does that sound like efficiency to you, to tell these cancer researchers we don't need
04:39them any further, any longer?
04:42At the FDA, those fired include inspectors of drug manufacturing plants, regulators in
04:48charge of recalling faulty medical devices, and those monitoring the safety of infant
04:53formula.
04:54For goodness sakes, we have a measles outbreak in Texas that has killed two and sickened
05:00220 people, mostly unvaccinated children.
05:04It is the worst measles outbreak in a generation in America.
05:09Instead of encouraging vaccinations to save these kids, Senator Kennedy diminished their
05:15significance, pardon me, Secretary Kennedy diminished their significance by falsely stating
05:20that measles outbreaks are not unusual, his words, and issuing a statement about the outbreak
05:25stating that, quote, the decision to vaccinate is a personal one, end of quote.
05:30Well, of course it's a personal one, but what is his position questioning the efficacy of
05:35vaccines doing to that personal decision process for the ordinary American?
05:40NIH is cutting 40 grant awards for promoting a vaccine updates and addressing hesitancy,
05:49which breaks the promise that he made to Republicans and Senators who were skeptical of his nomination.
05:55The list goes on.
05:56You cannot claim that you want to make America healthy again and then allow preventable diseases
06:02to come roaring back, all while firing scientists working to address these challenges.
06:08Will Dr. McCary stand up to Mr. Kennedy and encourage parents to vaccinate their kids?
06:13Will he stand up to the buzzsaw of Elon Musk's chainsaw?
06:17To big tobacco?
06:18I hope that he will.