Unanimous Consent Request
Floor Speech
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Mr. BRAUN. I think after I get through explaining my objection, hopefully, there will be something we can work out.
The United States should be engaging more in global efforts to find treatments and vaccines for coronavirus. Governments, academic institutions, scientists, researchers across the world are racing to do it. The United States must work at home and with international partners to develop treatments and vaccines. There is no reason we can't be doing something on our own and working with others across the world.
This is a joint venture, if there ever has been one. However, the nonbinding resolution that my colleague has offered is not an actual solution. I come from the world--and one of the frustrations for being here for just a year and a half is that we don't get more stuff across the finish line. I have a real solution to ensure Americans benefit from the vaccine and treatment development efforts happening across the world. My bill, the ADAPT Act, S. 658, as amended, would create an expedited, almost automatic approval process at the FDA for vaccines and treatments that might occur across the world. We do not have the market cornered on good ideas.
These countries have all developed regulatory systems that are compatible and that should make us feel comfortable. But instead of just talking about it, which we do so much of here, this bill would actually establish the approval reciprocity for treatments and vaccines between the FDA and other trusted counterparts.
If one of them approves a vaccine or treatment, they are quickly, almost automatically, approved here in the United States with my bill. We cannot afford miscommunication or bureaucratic foot-dragging with something so important. My bill ensures that regulators will work proactively to get Americans a vaccine as soon as possible.
Look at the early testing missteps we did have with the CDC. I mentioned that in the briefing last Tuesday. Their overly proscriptive approach delayed our testing capability for the first 40 days. The result has been a one-size-fits-all approach of locking down the economy, which I think we will see some of the disadvantages of that over the next few months.
When my staff talked with the FDA about working with international partners on treatment and vaccine development, the FDA assured them that they have everything under control and are speaking with their international counterparts. The FDA assured my staff that they have covered the issues that might come into play when you are having a partnership with somebody else. The FDA is promoting the idea and having the doors open for developers to submit data and to seek approval for treatments and vaccines
Until we have a vaccine, reopening will be gradual. We need herd immunity and vaccines to be the final solution to this saga we are going through, but we cannot afford bureaucratic obstacles slowing down regulatory approvals for a successful vaccine.
As we have seen, certain steps of vaccine development can be achieved at warp speed to cut down on development time, but regulatory approvals will not be one of them unless we take legislative action.
The ADAPT Act is real action, not just talk, specifically designed for times like this when scientists across the world are racing to develop treatments and vaccines.
Therefore, with my prior objection, I do not want to leave my friend from Illinois emptyhanded.
658 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration. I further ask that the Braun substitute amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to; the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
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Mr. BRAUN. Madam President, this may be a rare moment of some collegiality on the idea in general. I think the American public and, especially, I, who is one who has watched this place operate for so many years in my leading up to the point when I ran for the Senate, accept the kind of guidance that there may need to be more fleshed out, and the Senator objected to it.
Yet I think the American public deserves action out of this place, and so often it seems we dawdle and do not get to the point. Look at how long it took the body to come to an agreement on criminal justice reform. One of the first questions I asked when I got here was, How long have you been working on it? The answer--10 to 12 years. When you look at what we do get accomplished here, I think we need to figure out how we become more effective, how we get things done more quickly, and how we pay for it in the long run.
So I am going to savor the moment we have here. We are at least talking about it. Hopefully, we will be able to work with my neighbor from Illinois to still push the idea that this is a critical time and that we need to get something done.
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