[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18294]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    PHARMACEUTICAL MARKET ACCESS ACT

  (Mr. BURTON of Indiana asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I have been in Congress now for 
21 years and I have seen some pretty cruddy things, but I have never 
seen anything as cruddy as this. This was put out by the Traditional 
Values Coalition. They asked me to be on their board of directors last 
year because they said I was such a nice guy. They are now sending out 
this circular to my district and many other congressional districts 
saying that I may be against protecting the sanctity of human life, 
inferring that I might be a pro-abortionist, when that has not been the 
way I feel for 40 years.
  Members who are very pro-life, like the gentleman from New Jersey 
(Mr. Smith), are also on the reimportation bill to allow seniors to get 
pharmaceuticals at the lowest price possible in the world. The reason 
this is being done is because the pharmaceutical industry is afraid 
that they will have to lower their prices here in the United States as 
opposed to what they are charging people in other parts of the world.
  In Germany, if you want to buy Tamoxifen, which helps women fight 
breast cancer, it costs $60 for a 30-day supply. Here it is $360 for a 
30-day supply.
  The pharmaceutical industry is underwriting these lies to try to 
scare American congressmen from supporting legislation that would put 
Americans in a competitive position. Americans should not pay any more 
for their pharmaceuticals than their counterparts in other parts of the 
word, and to use babies like this is a crime. I really criticize the 
Traditional Values Coalition and other religious groups for using this 
kind of trash to scare American Congressmen.

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