mr. chairman , i yield myself such time as i may consume . 
mr. chairman , i frankly find the arguments that have been presented against this amendment , in a word , incredible . 
they seem to me to be coming from the entities in our country , in our economy , that need regulation . 
it seems as if the words were written by them . 
we have 125 medical schools in this country . 
we have a bevy of expert scientists who are capable of dealing with these kinds of issues . 
for anyone to stand on the floor of this house and say that you can not construct a panel , an advisory panel to advise the food and drug administration with regard to the safety and security of a particular drug without putting on that panel one-third of the members who are conflicted in their interests , who are being paid by the economic entities that are about to be regulated , or should be regulated , or who have done commercial advertisements for some of those entities , that you can not construct a panel without having a third of the members with that kind of conflict of interest , is the most absurd statement i think i have ever heard uttered on the floor of this house . 
we have scientific bodies throughout our government and throughout the private sector , throughout the national institutes of health , throughout any number of scientific organizations , who put together panels ; and they are never obliged to include within those panels people who are conflicted in their interests with regard to the decisions that are going to be made by those panels . 
it is ridiculous , absurd to stipulate that you can not construct a panel without having people with a conflict of interest . 
i am just asking the members of this body to tell the food and drug administration that when you draw together a panel , do the same thing that other regulatory bodies do . 
make sure that among the members of those panels , there is no one who is conflicted in their interests . 
no one who is being monetarily compensated by the entity that is being regulated ; in the case of the drug companies no one who is getting money from the drug companies , no one who is on the payroll of drug companies . 
that is all you have to do . 
it is a very simple thing . 
there are thousands of people to reach out to who are capable and qualified to come onto those panels and make those kinds of decisions . 
to say that you can not put together a panel without including in it one-third of the members who are conflicted in their interests is absolutely ridiculous . 
and so , mr. chairman , i ask the members of this body to do something that is in the best interests of the people of our nation . 
let us have a food and drug administration that is actually carrying out its regulatory authorities as this congress set them up to do . 
let us have an fda that actually regulates the entities . 
mr. chairman , i yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from connecticut ( ms. delauro ) xz4001030 . 
