Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Mrs. DINGELL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding me the time.

I rise in strong support of H.R. 269. This important bill reauthorizes the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act and provides FDA with needed revenue and authority to improve oversight of over-the- counter drugs.

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed this bipartisan legislation at the end of the 115th Congress, and I am pleased that we are acting on this bill once again at the beginning of the 116th Congress. I am proud to have helped introduce this legislation, and I urge my Senate colleagues to quickly pass this bill into law.

My chairman, Mr. Pallone and Representative Burgess have talked and spoken well of why we must address the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act. Headlines in the Detroit paper today talking about a death in an area hospital because of a power outage is why we must prepare these institutions to be ready for crises, but I want to speak about the over-the-counter part of this bill.

Today, 60 percent of all medicines sold in the United States are over the counter. Americans trust that they are safe, yet the FDA has only 18 full-time employees--only 18--to oversee the entire market of drugs sold across this country.

This outdated system has the potential to put patients at risk and does not match the realities of our modern healthcare system.

The bill we are discussing today reforms this system for the better. It creates a new user fee program to give FDA the resources it needs to improve public health. It also improves the efficiency by allowing the agency to update OTC monographs through administrative order rather than the rulemaking process.

These changes are a big win for patients, who will benefit from improved product safety, and for industry, as they will have a reliable pathway to bring new, innovative products to market. It has been years since a new sunscreen product has been brought to market simply because of this outdated system.

I want to thank my colleagues on the Energy and Commerce Committee for all the time and effort they put into this legislation; to Representatives Eshoo and Brooks, who worked so hard on the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act; and to my colleague, Representative DeGette, and my Republican colleagues, Representatives Latta, Guthrie, and Burgess, for all the work that they did.

We need to get this important bill passed and into law. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 269.

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