Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2007

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2007 -- (Senate - July 11, 2006)

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I wanted to take a moment to note my vote for the amendment offered to H.R. 5441 by Senator VITTER. Senator VITTER's amendment would prohibit the U.S. Customs and Border Protection from using funds to prevent individuals from importing a prescription drug from Canada that complies with the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, FDCA.

The strong support demonstrated today for Senator VITTER's amendment reemphasizes the importance of the issue of allowing Americans to import prescription drugs.

I have long advocated allowing American consumers access to safe drugs from other countries. In 2000, 2002 and 2003 I supported amendments permitting reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada. In 2004, Senator KENNEDY and I offered bipartisan legislation to authorize reimportation. And, last year, I introduced a reimportation bill with Senators SNOWE, KENNEDY, DORGAN and others. Our bill, S. 334, the Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act, permits the importation of prescription drugs and includes very important safeguards to help ensure that those drugs are safe and obtained from legitimate pharmacies. I look forward to continuing to pursue Senate passage of our comprehensive, bipartisan bill. Allowing importation will increase competition and keep the domestic pharmaceutical industry more responsive to consumers.

Senate approval of the Vitter amendment represents another development in an ongoing effort to help reduce the cost of life-saving drugs for American consumers. We need to do more to foster competition by allowing imported medicine and to make sure that those prescription drugs are safe. S.334 should be the next step on this issue.

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