December 7, 2006: von Eschenbach Confirmed; Frist Farewell

Summary: Debate precedes cloture vote on von Eschenbach nomination for permanent FDA Commissioner...von Eschenbach is currently serving as acting FDA Commish... Grassley says he is voting against cloture because von Eschenbach's FDA has not been cooperative with Congressional inquiries, that "A vote for cloture is a vote against oversight"...Vitter of LA opposes von Eschenbach on the basis of the Administration's refusal to consider re-importation of drugs from Canada...Cloture vote underway at 10:36...Pretty much everyone votes for cloture...Cloture motion is agreed to 89-6...Frist says farewell... Talent eschews farewell speech to  call for more military spending, what he calls "recapitalization"...the vote on von Eschenbach's nomination is now taking place...von Eschenbach wins nomination...Senator Burns says they should turn off the cameras in the Senate because the debates aren't as good anymore...

[16:07]
The only votes against von Eschenbach are coming from Republicans, especially conservatives.  Santorum, Talent, DeWine, Voinovich, Vitter, Grassley, Brownback.  Is it possible that the Democrats secured from von Eschenbach a promise that he as FDA commish would move forward on Plan B?  Consider that Clinton, who vowed to vote against von Eschenbach as recently as August voted for his confirmation.  Something here doesn't add up.

[15:52]
Von Eschenbach will be confirmed as the new FDA Commissioner.  Plenty of Dems have already voted in the affirmative (Bingaman, Bayh, Boxer, Wyden, Rockefeller, Feingold, etc.)  Vitter and Inhofe against.

[17:49]
Roll call vote on von Eschenbach's nomination is taking place.


[16:07]
Outgoing senator James Talent (MO) eschews a farewell speech to soliloquize on the appropriate level of military spending.  He calls for increased military spending and says the military needs an overhaul, hasn't been buying enough ships, choppers, submarines, etc.


[15:26]
It's over with, 25 minutes of taxpayer money wasted on heating the senate chamber.  Everyone got a chance to say a little speech and say how much great work Frist did in the Senate.  Is it true?  Was it sardonic?  Some might say.  Ironic considering the complaints earlier this week from fellow Senators of both parties about not getting enough work done before adjournment.  Soon-to-be House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (MD) has already said the House is gonna have to work harder next year, and the chamber will go to five-day work weeks.  I don't know why it is everyone feels he has to make a speech when someone is leaving.  It would be impolite not to.  That's the only reason most people do it.  Sometimes people really wanna make speeches, and sometimes the speeches are deserved.  I found it interesting that Pete Domenici, who has over 13,000 votes in the senate, a number only seven other senators have ever reached, and who said that the failure to pass FY 2007 budgets was a failure of the Senate's basic responsibility under the constitution, never shook Bill Frist right hand on right hand but sort of just held out his left hand and put his four fingers daintily into Frist's right hand.  Twice Domenici did this, the second time after giving his tribute to Frist and saying something about not believing that Frist was gonna go back to bein a country doctor, instead that Frist was gonna go on to do something better, he had a feeling, and they would go duck hunting together, but Frist better not shoot too well, and was all the while holding some files in his right hand.

[15:01]
Frist says farewell, makes a speeh, gets applause.  Now Minority Leader Reid is paying tribute to Frist.


[14:32]
Soon, Majority Leader Frist will say his farewell to the Senate.  Vice President Cheney will accompany Frist into the chamber. The Senate is still set to adjourn at the end of this week, without passing 8 of 11 spending bills for FY 2007, a failure veteran senators Mikulski and Domenici have asserted is an abdication of the senate's most basic responsibility.  Goodbye to all that!

[11:18]
Cloture motion is agreed to 89-6.  Enzi thanks the chamber and asks that the Senate proceed to the confirmation.  Enzi thanks Senator Ted Kennedy (MA), who is the top Dem on the Health Committee.

[10:38]
Significant yes votes: All but one of the Democrats voting (Baucus)
Significant no votes: Vitter, Grassley, DeWine, Santorum, Voinovich,

[10:36]
Roll call vote for cloture motion on confirmation of von Eschenbach as permanent FDA Commish is underway...

[10:21]
Senator Robert Bennett (UT) says it's hard to certify that drugs coming across the border are "safe."  Bennett says a certain percentage of drugs coming back are not in fact drugs made in the US, but manufactured elsewhere (note: he is saying that they are unsafe, only that the dosage is not the same, and that they are not US-made).  He supports von Eschenbach.


[10:18]
Enzi responds.  Vitter has been a real leader on this issue.  But, again, von Eschenbach does not have full authority.  Drug importation is not currently legal, and we should not hold up his nomination for that reason.  Vitter says, no, under current law it is possible to import drugs as long as it's "safe."  So Enzi backs off what he had just said, and says, What if you were in this catch-22?  Von Eschenbach could have, under current law, made a safety certification but did not.


[10:07]
Senator David Vitter (LA) says he will vote against cloture and that he, too, another Republican, has a public hold on the nomination and the reason: that von Eschenbach's FDA has blocked a safe re-importation policy for drugs from Canada.  OK, so that's three reasons now for opposition: re-importation of drugs from Canada, Plan-B, and checks and balances within the three branches of government. (Is it just me or are some Republicans finally standing up for some issues that they believe in, have probably always believed in, but you never woulda known it.)  In fact, he says that Congress will soon pass a "full-blown" re-importation from Canada policy.  Vitter himself got an amendment passed this summer that would have implemented a re-importation plan.


[10:00]
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX) knows him and supports him.  She says that health cmte. supported his nomination unanimously.  


[9:59]
Senator Ted Stevens (AK) says the Senate should vote for closure, that he has dealt with Von Eschenbach previously and never had a hard time getting documents...


[9:58]
Enzi responds.  Von Eschenbach does not have the full authority to run that department, that he has had to rely on the Justice Department for advice and authority...So we need to take on the Justice Dept. through the Judiciary cmte., and that it will be different when Von Eschenbach has full authority...


[9:43]
Senator Chuck Grassley (IA) says he is voting against cloture (meaning von Eschenbach would not get an up or down vote) because he says that the FDA under von Eschenbach has not been cooperative with the legislative branch of the government.  Indeed, Grassley says he has himself put a hold on the von Eschenbach nomination.  He is pissed off about something.  My guess is that von Eschenbach does not come anywhere near the 60 votes needed for cloture.  Grassley is referring to a document request that Congress made, getting back 57 blacked-out pages.  That the Executive Branch is out of control, essentially.  Chuck is standing up for the Senate here.  "How are you gonna do oversight when you get answers like that?  That's an insult!"  But he is also saying to Democrats: You said during campaign commercials that Republicans fell short on oversight—how can you do oversight when you get answer like this?  Agency prerogative, refused contact with line agents, prosecutorial process, confidential communications, etc. as rationales for withholding agency information.  He is basically saying that the FDA has covered-up some aspects of its drug-approval processes.


[9:40]
Senate is underway.  Senator Mike Enzi (WY), chairman of the health, education, labor, and pensions committee is now arguing von Eschenbach's confirmation, saying that he understands why some of his colleagues oppose the president's choice, but that decisions shouldn't be made based on one issue or product.  He is talking about the Plan B pills. Von Eschenbach, as acting commish of FDA, has prevented Plan B from gaining over-the-counter status.  Sens. Clinton and Cantwell have vowed to block von Eschenbach for this reason.  


Preview:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said last night that the Senate today would consider the nomination of Andrew von Eschenbach to serve as FDA Commissioner.  Von Eschenbach has been acting FDA Commissioner for many months.  However, Sens. Hilary Clinton (NY) and Maria Cantwell (WA) said in August that they would block his nomination because he opposed the sales of Plan B over-the-counter.

In other news, the WSJ was reporting this morning that Congressional leadership was mushing together an omnibus year-end extravaganza bill that would combine everything from Vietnam trade to off-shore drilling to tax cuts.  Unclear where that off-shore drilling would occur under this omnibus bill.  The Senate approved Gulf of Mexico drilling already this year while the House bill allows oil companies to drill pretty much anywhere.