mr. chairman , i yield myself 2 minutes . 
let me just say that i want to make it clear that what we tried to do with regard to the food and drug administration was to call attention to the series of crises that , in fact , have been rampant over the last several months , whether it is vioxx or whether it is bextra or whether it is the post-marketing studies that were to occur that never did occur or the slighting , i believe , of our committee in not coming forward and having the director come before our committee . 
what we tried to do is to create a balance , and that is to provide additional funding for the office of drug safety to look at direct-to-consumer advertising in order to try to protect the public and to provide additional funding to create some more infrastructure . 
i , too , believe that we should have made in order the amendments offered by the gentleman from new york ( mr. hinchey ) xz4001780 . 
really what should be happening is fda should be coming to the congress for authority in order to be able to change the labeling that , in fact , ultimately protects the public interest and that we ought to have the opportunity and they ought to come and demand from us authority in order to do post-marketing surveys about the risks of some of the products that are on the market . 
they should be coming to us . 
instead , we want to provide that authority but are not allowed to be able to do that . 
i think that it was a mistake for us not to do that , but i think we need to continue this effort about trying to provide the agency which has the regulatory power over the pharmaceutical industry to develop some spine in order to be able to protect the public interest . 
