[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Page 22646]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       FDA REAUTHORIZATION BILLS

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Presdient, as my colleagues know, the Senate passed 
S. 1082, the FDA Revitalization Act, on May 9 by a near-unanimous vote. 
The House passed its version of this legislation, H.R. 2900, the FDA 
Amendments Act, on July 11, also by a near-unanimous vote. Staff of the 
Senate HELP Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee has 
worked many, many hours a day, 7 days a week, to get to a bipartisan, 
bicameral agreement on the FDA reauthorization bills.
  Working together with Senator Enzi, we have already made a great deal 
of progress. We have reached agreement or near agreement on several 
titles and have narrowed the gap on most others. Important issues 
remain to be resolved, but we will do the work we need to do to have an 
agreement for the House and Senate to consider in September.
  I thank our majority leader, Senator Reid, for his leadership and 
support throughout this process and for making this important 
legislation an early priority in the Senate. While we were unable to 
appoint conferees today, our bipartisan deliberations will continue 
through August, and I hope we can name conferees in September and 
finalize this legislation that is so important to the safety and health 
of all Americans.
  I also commend my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, from both 
the House and Senate. They have a deep knowledge of the issues 
presented by these bills and have been strong advocates of different 
positions on some of the issues. I believe this process has improved 
the legislation and will continue to do so and that it will produce an 
FDA reauthorization bill that the House and Senate can again endorse 
with broad, bipartisan support.

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