Ex-Sen. Coburn: Congress ‘beats the crap’ out of FDA

Former Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), a tough critic of government waste in office, returned to the Capitol on Tuesday, this time urging his colleagues to boost funding for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Coburn testified that while there is much that needs to be reformed at the agency, Congress often unfairly criticized the FDA and needed to provide more funds.

“Congress beats the crap out of the FDA whenever they do something wrong,” he told the Senate Commerce subpanel on Space, Science and Competitiveness, at a hearing on unlocking cures for America’s most deadly illnesses.

{mosads}A three-term former senator, medically trained doctor, and three-time cancer survivor, Coburn is no stranger to both sides of the contentious debate.

In Congress, his annual “Wastebook” blasted what Coburn saw as excessive or wasteful government spending.

But on Tuesday, he said Republicans had been too hard on the FDA and needed to give it the opportunity to make reforms. Tough criticism from GOP lawmakers had made the agency risk-averse, Coburn said, with bad results.

“Their underlying motto is never do what’s best, when you can do what’s safe. And I don’t blame them because the criticism is so severe,” he told the panel.

Playing it safe often meant abandoning potentially useful drugs for fear of failure and Congressional disparagement.

“You have to not worry about what it costs,” he urged, explaining that spending on research for cures to diseases now paid off later in saved medical costs.

And while Coburn placed much of the onus on Congress, he did not pull any punches in his criticism of the FDA.

“I think we’re way underfunded, but I think we need to have better oversight because they make some errors that are just plain stupid,” he said.

The hearing comes after the House last week passed its 21st Century Cures Act, which would boost funding for the National Institutes of Health and implement reforms at the FDA.

The Senate is still crafting on its version of the bill, and subcommittee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a 2016 contender, said only that the details were still being worked out.

“That’s going to be an ongoing conversation between members,” he said.

“It is my hope that we can take this testimony and that we will work together in a bipartisan manner to begin implementing these transformational changes.”