Category: Liz Goldberg
Problems Abound With Drug Reimportation
By Liz Goldberg
WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 – The cost of prescription drugs in the United States is too high, but problems, including safety regulation and patent laws, must be ironed out before drugs can be reimported from other countries, said members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and officials who testified at a hearing Wednesday.
The hearing was the first of several the committee will hold to investigate the feasibility of reimporting U.S.-made drugs from other countries. The discussion is coming after a task force researched and identified several challenges facing reimportation.
Many senior citizens and other prescription drug users organize bus trips to Canada to pick up drugs or order them from Canadian online pharmacies. The drugs are available at a fraction of their price in the United States, but many of the pharmacies are reportedly rogue organizations.
“Our seniors are under incredible pressure, and I think this really cries out for action,” Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), the committee’s senior Democrat, said of the costs of prescription drugs, adding that lower costs must not reduce safety.
Kennedy noted that the United States invests the most money in developing prescription drugs and also charges the most for the drugs, calling drug costs in other countries “vastly more reasonable” than those in the United States.
Surgeon General Richard Carmona, who led the task force, said the economists and scientists the task force interviewed said the loss of revenue because of drug reimportation programs could deter such research and development in the United States.
Kennedy and several other senators, including Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), are co-sponsoring a bill introduced by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D) last week to allow reimportation of drugs already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who is also a member of the committee but did not attend Wednesday’s hearing, introduced similar legislation on Jan. 26. Collins also co-sponsored his bill. Rep. Jeb Bradley (R-N.H.) introduced a companion bill in the House on Feb. 10.
Although the task force found that Canadian drug regulations are equal to those of the United States, many of the online pharmacies that consumers purchase from are shams, they concluded. The pills they sell could be too strong or too week or have been improperly stored or transported, affecting their “pedigree,” Carmona said.
“The bottom line is that the public can get something that we have no idea if it’s safe or effective,” he said.
Part of the problem with ensuring the safety of reimported drugs is that there are thousands of points of entry around the country through which packages travel each day, Carmona said. The task force recommends a “well-defined, closed system,” with the FDA having authority to monitor all of the packages that come into the country, no matter the original source, he said
Because counterfeiters can duplicate drug labels, seals, watermarks and the shape of pills, the United States needs to develop an electronic system to track and trace packages containing prescription drugs, Carmona said. Such a system would be costly because it would need to stay a step ahead of counterfeiters and would work only if the country exporting the drugs was willing to participate, which few countries are because of the cost, Carmona said.
Loopholes in the way drugs move within the United States also must be closed before drugs are imported from other countries, said John Gray, president and CEO of the Healthcare Distribution Management Association.
Dr. Peter Rost, a vice president of Pfizer Inc., said those loopholes include the thousands of secondary wholesalers of drugs in the United States, which are licensed by states rather than the FDA. Pills also are shipped in large quantities and then repackaged, unlike in Europe, where pills are shipped in individual bottles and are not touched after leaving the manufacturer, said Rost, who told the committee he was speaking as an individual, not as a Pfizer representative.
Two cities in Massachusetts, Boston and Springfield, have relationships with Canadian distributors to import drugs. The state of Minnesota has contractual agreements with reputable Canadian pharmacies and is able to import drugs at lower cost, an arrangement Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty advocates expanding to the entire country.
“We’re asking the government, ideally the FDA . to step in and identify the credible operators” and help the American people get affordable drugs, Pawlenty said, while acknowledging another problem: Canadian companies are already becoming strained by the demand to export drugs to the United States.
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) expressed additional concerns with Pawlenty’s plan.
“We have a much bigger animal to deal with than what Minnesota has,” he said, referring to the country as a whole.
Burr said reimporting drugs would be a violation of intellectual property laws because the patent owner would have to give approval for the reimportation. Pawlenty said Minnesota imports drugs under a legal provision that allows what might otherwise be a violation of drug companies’ patent rights , but the governor acknowledged that the law would need to be altered if drug importation went nationwide.
Mailing the drugs is also a concern, considering that anthrax and ricin can be mailed, said Burr, chairman of the panel’s Bioterrorism and Public Health Preparedness Subcommittee.
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Snowe Persists for Passage of Genetic Nondiscrimination Bill
By Liz Goldberg
WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 - For the fifth time in 10 years, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) has introduced a bill to prevent insurance companies and businesses from discriminating against people who have a genetic disposition toward diseases such as cancer, Huntington's disease or glaucoma.
The Senate approved the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, 95-0, in October 2003 but it did not make it through the House in the face of opposition from business and insurance groups.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved the latest version on Wednesday. It is expected to go to the floor of the Senate for a vote sometime next week, according to Antonia Ferrier, Snowe's press secretary.
"I think the overall hope is that by coming so quickly out of the gate . that we can expeditiously get it through the floor of the Senate . and put pressure on our colleagues in the House," Ferrier said.
No federal law against genetic discrimination exists, Ferrier said, but it is becoming increasingly important to have such a law, she added , because modern technology can provide a lot of medical information that could be used for discrimination.
Snowe first introduced the bill in 1996 and was bolstered in her efforts to get it passed by a letter from concerned constituent Bonnie Lee Tucker. Tucker feared her daughter, Laura, would be discriminated against by insurance companies and employers if she got genetic testing for breast cancer. Nine women in Tucker's family have had breast cancer, putting Laura at high risk for the disease.
"That kind of constituent story really proves why we have to have this legislation passed," Ferrier said.
Currently, insurance companies can use the results from genetic testing to limit a person's coverage, raise premiums or deny coverage, according to a 2003 press release from Snowe. The bill would strengthen patients' safeguards against discrimination by insurance companies and employers, who could use the genetic information in making decisions about hiring and firing.
"Insurers should not be allowed to deny coverage, cancel coverage or adjust premium rates, and employers should not be able to use genetic information as a means of determining employment decisions," Snowe said in a statement.
Snowe previously had noted that more people need to use genetic testing to provide data for medical research and need assurance that they will not be discriminated against based on the results.
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Tech-Savvy Sununu Named to Task Force
By Liz Goldberg
WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 - Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.) was reappointed to the Senate Republican High Tech Task Force by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) on Wednesday, continuing the role he was first appointed to in 2003.
Members of the task force are interested in high-technology issues such as "manufacturing hardware and software, trade and technology and the legislation that would affect those areas," Sununu said in a phone interview.
Sununu said he would like to focus on protecting intellectual property through trade agreements to ensure that America can "maintain an edge" in innovation, lowering taxes to protect manufacturing and "crafting a strong and deregulatory telecommunications bill that will create a level playing field for investments and new technology in communication networks."
Sununu has a bachelor's and a master's degrees in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He said his background in the sciences helps when dealing with technological legislation. He is also a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
The task force was established in 1999 and seeks "to be THE voice of the high technology industry on Capitol Hill," according to its Web site.
Recently, it has dealt with such issues as Internet taxation, reduction of spam e-mails, the do-not-call phone solicitation list, modernization of military technology and the Class Action Fairness Act, which Congress approved this week.
Including Sununu, 15 senators are members of the task force.
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Maine Delegation Strives for Unity
By Liz Goldberg
WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 - The Maine congressional delegation stressed the need for congressional unity at a breakfast held by the Maine State Society on Thursday.
Both senators and both House members noted how closely the Mainers work together - despite their party differences - on issues such as trying to ensure that the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard survives the Defense Department's base closings this year.
Sen. Susan Collins (R), who chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said the shipyard also needs to be protected from attacks.
"I am convinced that our ports represent the greatest vulnerability," she said, adding that an attack on even a small port would shut down commerce in the country and cripple the economy.
The way the Maine delegation works together should serve as a model for all of Congress, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R) said. As co-chairwoman of the Senate Centrist Coalition, she said it is something she is working toward.
Reps. Tom Allen (D) and Mike Michaud (D) both said they wished they had a centrist coalition in the House.
"You get so much more done and the quality of the legislation is better" when Congress works together, Michaud said.
Since 1975, the society has held a congressional breakfast around the time Congress convenes, said society treasurer Lewis Pearson, 71, who is formerly from Portland and now lives in Falls Church, Va., a Washington suburb.
"The members of the delegation realize that within the society there are people who live and work in D.C. but still vote in Maine, so that's an incentive for attendance," he said.
Nearly 50 people attended the $22.50 scrambled eggs, bacon and biscuits breakfast in the Russell Senate Office Building. Army Spc. Daniel Wight, whose uncle is a member of the society and invited him to the breakfast, was given a standing ovation. Wight was injured in an ambush in Iraq.
In addition to the breakfast, the Society has several events each year, including a lobster dinner and a cleanup of monuments at Gettysburg National Military Park.
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Maine Delegates Agree on Need for Social Security Discussion
By Liz Goldberg
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 - President George W. Bush's State of the Union speech, which focused largely on the debate over the future of Social Security, drew mixed reactions from the Maine congressional delegation Wednesday night, but all agreed on the need for a close look at the program to ensure its future.
Bush's plans to allow future Social Security retirees to divert some of their payroll taxes to personal retirement accounts have come under fire from many Democrats, including Reps. Tom Allen and Mike Michaud.
Social Security is not in crisis and will not be as long as Americans continue to work, Allen said. Michaud agreed and said the crisis is with the federal budget deficit.
"It was this administration that put us in crisis, and I definitely think it's time to get this crisis in order," Michaud said.
Sen. Susan Collins said she was pleased the President made it clear that Social Security will remain in place for today's senior citizens, many of whom have voiced concern about their futures.
"That reassurance was really needed, and I was glad he made it so explicit," Collins said.
Sen. Olympia Snowe, who has been a vocal opponent of Bush's Social Security plan, said she was pleased the President discussed the issue in his address.
"The President indicated there is a long-term problem, and I believe that strengthening the system will require an open and exhaustive review of the level of the urgency of the issue and how best to move forward," Snowe said in a statement.
Michaud said he was glad Bush acknowledged the need to care for injured soldiers when they return from Iraq, but spending cuts will make that goal difficult.
"Sitting on the Veterans' Affairs Committee, all I've seen is cuts to the Veterans Administration," he said.
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Portsmouth Area Community Members Prepare to Plead Their Case
By Liz Goldberg
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26, 2005- The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard's skilled workforce, along with its capability to protect the United States from attack, are two reasons the Pentagon should spare it in this year's round of base closings, Maine and New Hampshire lawmakers said Tuesday.
The members of the two states' congressional delegations spoke out during a meeting with community members who came to Washington to plead their case with Pentagon officials on Wednesday. The shipyard straddles the Maine-New Hampshire line.
The Base Realignment and Closure process is part of a 20-year effort to shut down military facilities deemed unnecessary in a post-Cold War world. Base closings saved the government $17 billion by 2001 and were expected to save $7 billion annually thereafter, according to a March 2003 Defense Department report.
While the economic impact on the region of closing the shipyard would be huge, according to congressional staff members who attended the Tuesday meeting,. the base's military value and other policy issues are even more important. The shipyard, they said,- routinely works up to 50 percent faster and 50 percent cheaper than the private shipyards that have been getting increased amounts of work under the Bush administration, and this would save taxpayers money at a time when the Defense Department is looking to cut costs.
"It's an easy case to make, but we have to make it over and over again, and that's what we're doing," Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said.
Collins also noted the role the yard could play in homeland security and said it was "short-sighted" to reduce naval facilities at a time when countries such as China were building up their navies.
The opportunities for increased homeland security, as well as the capacity to increase the number of shipyard employees fivefold are assets for the shipyard, which is already efficient but still has room to grow, Rep. Jeb Bradley (R-N.H.) said after the meeting.
Retired Navy Capt. William McDonough, a former commander of the shipyard and now a spokesman for the Seacoast Shipyard Association, said he was pleased to have the opportunity to meet with a deputy assistant Navy secretary and a deputy Defense undersecretary but knows they will not "make a commitment" to the group. Several Portsmouth city officials also will attend the Wednesday meeting.
The congressional delegations have been meeting on the shipyard's future every two weeks for the past two years and have sent more than 20 letters to Pentagon officials. Each member of the delegation will now be calling Pentagon decision-makers to make the case for not closing Portsmouth.
In 2004, the shipyard employed more than 4,800 civilian workers, with a payroll of $318 million, according to an economic impact report from the Seacoast Shipyard Association.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is scheduled to submit a list of proposed base closings to a base-closing commission by May 16. The panel will then submit its recommendations to President Bush, who must approve or disapprove the recommendations in their entirety by Sept. 23. Congress, in turn, must approve or disapprove the entire list.
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Shipyard Still in Danger of Closing
By Liz Goldberg
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26, 2005- The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard remains in danger of closing, despite a productive meeting Portsmouth-area representatives had with Pentagon officials on Wednesday, said several people who attended the meeting.
"It was what we expected," retired Navy Captain William McDonough, a former commander of the shipyard and spokesman for the Seacoast Shipyard Association, said of the meeting. "It's gratifying that we were well received, and I can only hope the information moves up the line and the decision comes out favorably."
The shipyard, which straddles the Maine-New Hampshire line, could be closed as part of the Defense Department's Base Realignment and Closure process, which seeks to reduce the number of military facilities in the post-Cold War world. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will announce his decisions on base closings by May 16.
Others at the meeting were Portsmouth (N.H.) City Manager John Bohenko, Sanford (Maine) Town Manager Mark Green, Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce President Dick Ingram and Kennebunk Savings Bank President Joel Stevens.
On Tuesday, they met with members of the Maine and New Hampshire congressional delegations and their staffs, who support keeping the shipyard open, to determine the strongest arguments to make when they met with a deputy assistant Navy secretary and a deputy Defense undersecretary at the Pentagon on Wednesday.
Bohenko said he and his fellow area representatives focused on the "efficiency aspect" of the shipyard and argued that its location on the water and near an airport could lead to "synergies" in the future. The shipyard operates up to 50 percent faster and 50 percent cheaper than other yards, congressional staff members said at the Tuesday meeting.
Ingram said he was impressed with the conversations they had with the Pentagon officials, calling them more "substantive" than he expected. He called the meeting "necessary" and "worthwhile" because he and the other area representatives had different viewpoints from the lawmakers, who, he said, do not live in the area.
Still, he came away with "no better sense of whether the news will be good or bad," he said. "Everyone's playing their cards very close to the vest."
Members of the congressional delegation were also pleased with the Pentagon meeting, according to a joint statement by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Rep. Tom Allen (D-Maine).
The meeting "was an opportunity for Pentagon leadership to hear firsthand from local business and community leaders the unique contributions offered by Portsmouth Shipyard, of which there are many," the statement read. "We will continue to work with members of the delegation and the shipyard community to protect" the shipyard.
Pentagon officials will continue to gather data over the next several weeks, Bohenko said, meaning there is still time for concerned citizens to write to Rumsfeld to justify keeping the shipyard open.
"I think we need to continue to make our case and people need to continue to feel that we're vulnerable and that we continue to need to espouse the importance of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard," he said.
The congressional delegations also promised to continue to fight to keep the shipyard open.
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Mainers Attend Inaugural Ball
By Liz Goldberg
WASHINGTON, Jan. 21 - For her 18th birthday, Colleen Pajak received a present few people will get in a lifetime - a compliment from President George W. Bush.
In between dancing to such songs as Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" and Frank Sinatra's "My Way" (all sung with a Southern twang), a rosy-cheeked Pajak glided off the dance floor of the Hilton Washington on Thursday night and excitedly described the conversation she'd had about an hour before, when she was one of six people who greeted the Bushes backstage at the Constitution Ball.
"The President and First Lady stopped and talked to every one of us for about a minute, and it was really awesome," said the senior from Catherine McAuley High School in Portland.
Pajak said the President noted that they were wearing matching American flag pins but said that Pajak's, which sparkled in the light, was "fancier."
Pajak, who said she idolizes Laura Bush, said she then told Mrs. Bush she looked "beautiful," before getting her picture taken with the Bushes.
Pajak's father, Michael, 44, said he took time off from his job as a self-employed executive recruiter and has been in Washington. for two months, setting up telephones and computers, distributing tickets and doing other administrative work for the inaugural events. When a co-worker suggested he take Colleen to the ball, which took place three days before her birthday, he knew it would be the prefect present, especially because Colleen helped recruit voters for Bush. As an added bonus, Pajak also was able to arrange for his daughter to be a greeter.
"She loves balls," Pajak said. "It's really up her alley and the timing just seemed right."
Pajak also arranged for his daughter's boyfriend and two of her friends to get tickets to the $150 event, which included a small buffet dinner of salad, beef and pasta.
"It's the best present I've ever received," Colleen said. "I know there was so much work behind it, and it really means a lot to me."
When the Bush family appeared on stage, Jean Carrier, 33, of Jackman, was standing about 20 feet away, he said in an interview Friday morning.
"We have a picture of him on our wall at home and he looks like I thought he would," said Carrier, who had never before seen the President in person.
After the First Family left the ball, Carrier said, he met people from all over the country and was especially impressed by the number of young people in attendance.
"I thought the youth was getting out of politics, but it's good to see them stepping up to the plate," he said, adding that democracy will continue for generations to come.
Carrier said he was honored "to witness democracy in action" at the ball.
"There's not many countries in the world that can afford to have such events, and to be a part of it was great," he said.
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Maine Senators Host Breakfast
By Liz Goldberg
WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 - In a room full of Mainers eating breakfast Thursday with Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, the most visibly exuberant person was not the nine-year-old boy who had his picture taken with Sen. Collins or the college student who took advantage of the breakfast to introduce himself to the senator, in whose office he hopes to intern next year.
It was Sgt. Michael Edes, 46, president of the Maine State Troopers Association, who beamed with excitement as he talked about the breakfast and about attending Bush's swearing-in ceremony, the parade and an inaugural ball.
"It's really something," he said of the inauguration. "It's nice to be involved in the process. This is history."
The event was even more special for Edes because he got to share it with his friend, Jack Carrier.
Carrier, who describes himself as a "pure Republican," spoke only French when he moved from Canada to Maine 40 years ago. Now he owns 80,000 acres of land, five mills and is the largest logging contractor in the state, he said.
"I do like the American way," Carrier said with a smile.
Carrier's story symbolizes America, Edes said. "That, to me, is what makes this country good," he said.
Harry Rideout, 62, was attending his third inauguration and had his picture taken with Sens. Collins and Snowe.
"The last time I had my picture taken with two senators, they were both Democrats," he said of his photo with Edmund Muskie and William Hathaway more than 30 years ago. Rideout also said he served in the Maine House of Representatives with Sen. Snowe in the 1970s.
After serving as an honor guard for John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961 and watching Ronald Reagan's inauguration from the crowd in 1981, Rideout and his wife, Sharon, 59, traveled to Washington this year to see the inauguration of a president for whom they campaigned for votes in the Bangor area.
"Of all the presidents I've known, George W. is my favorite," he said. "He's been such a steadfast president, even more than Reagan. He doesn't waver."
A group of seven students from Van Buren High School spent most of Wednesday sitting in airport terminals and on runways as their flights to Washington were delayed and diverted due to weather.
Although they missed out on going to several museums and monuments on Wednesday, the students said they were excited about Thursday's events.
"I'm looking forward to meeting people and seeing the historic sights that you hear so much about," said sophomore Lita Dionne, 16.
As Sen. Snowe spoke with nine members of Maine College Republicans, she reflected on 1969, the year she was a senior at the University of Maine and saw her first inauguration.
Snowe said it was important to keep the tradition of the inauguration festivities and to involve the American people in it. The breakfast sought to bring everyone from Maine together and thank them for traveling to Washington to celebrate the day, she said.
The inauguration is "an important demonstration to the world about free elections," she said, and is an example to the Iraqi people as they approach their impending elections.
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