mr. chairman , i move to strike the last word . 
mr. chairman , last night i went before the committee on rules to seek the ability to offer an amendment to the bill today that would have given the food and drug administration , the fda , two critically important new authorities to improve the agency 's drug safety operations . 
it would have given fda the authority to require drug companies to conduct post-marketing studies of fda-approved drugs and the authority to mandate changes to the labels of fda-approved drugs . 
but the committee on rules would not allow the amendment . 
almost every week we hear about another unsafe drug and the significant harm that those drugs are doing to millions of people . 
yet congress has done nothing . 
the most recent case is the cholesterol-lowering drug crestor , which a recent study found is significantly more likely than other drugs in its class to cause muscle deterioration that can lead to kidney disease and kidney failure . 
flip through the headlines of the last few months , and we will see many more examples . 
of the two most significant drug failures of the last year , they are antidepressants and vioxx . 
for years , evidence was building that antidepressants seem to cause an increased rate of suicide among users , particularly young people . 
the fda , however , failed to heed this evidence and delayed taking any action for years because the agency said it did not have enough data to do anything about these reports of suicide . 
the reason for this was fda could not order the drug companies to conduct further clinical trials after a drug is approved . 
when the agency finally did have enough data back in 2003 , it first sought to hide it but eventually told antidepressant makers that there needed to be a warning on suicide . 
however , it took more than 9 months before that warning was placed on any drug label because the fda had to negotiate with the drug companies over the label 's wording . 
patients went 9 extra months without knowing all the risks . 
vioxx was finally removed from the market last september because it increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes . 
notably , it was the drug manufacturer , merck , that removed the drug , not the fda . 
an estimated 90 , 000 to 140 , 000 americans suffered heart attacks and strokes as a result of vioxx . 
of these , 30 to 40 percent , or as many as 60 , 000 people , probably died . 
dr . 
david graham , a heroic doctor at the fda , put these numbers into perspective when he testified before the senate finance committee last november . 
he compared the number of heart attacks and strokes caused by vioxx to plane crashes . 
dr . 
graham stated the vioxx numbers are the equivalent of two to four airplane crashes every week , week in and week out , week after week , for the past 5 years . 
if it really were planes that were crashing , then the congress would be doing something about it . 
yet we have done nothing to empower the fda to prevent another vioxx . 
fda knew about the dangers of vioxx more than 5 years ago , and in 2002 the agency decided vioxx 's label needed to have a warning about the increased risk of heart disease . 
yet it took nearly 14 months before that warning was added to vioxx 's label because the fda again had to negotiate the wording with the drug company . 
fda could not simply tell merck that its label must say vioxx causes increased risk of heart attacks and strokes . 
nor could fda order merck to conduct a new clinical trial about vioxx 's safety when the fda learned of other studies indicating safety problems . 
my amendment would change that . 
these commonsense changes are nearly universally accepted by patient safety organizations , endorsed by nearly every major medical journal , and even by a few drug companies . 
fda 's own director of the office of new drugs has said she believes it would be extremely helpful for the agency to have these powers and authorities . 
they are also endorsed on a bipartisan basis , including by senators charles grassley and thad cochran , who have cosponsored a bill that would do almost exactly what i am proposing today . 
these changes can not wait to happen . 
they can not wait any longer . 
delay is going to cost lives , many lives , tens of thousands of lives in all probability . 
the amendment should have been made in order by the committee on rules , and i am asking the house now today to make this amendment in order . 
this amendment needs to be considered by the full house of representatives , and it needs to be considered for no other reason than because by not considering it , we are placing hundreds of thousands of people across this country in dire jeopardy . 
we need a food and drug administration that can deal with the drug companies and with the medical manufacturing establishments that it allegedly regulates , deal with them in an effective way , so that we can have true regulation on behalf of the safety and security of the american people , which we do not have today and which this congress has refused to bring about . 
so i am taking this opportunity , mr. chairman , to bring this amendment to the floor of the house . 
i want this amendment considered , and i hope that every member of the house will see it his or her duty to adopt this amendment today . 
