WASHINGTON-Today, Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA), Ranking Member Mike Enzi (R-WY) and members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions issued letters requesting documents to aid in the committee’s investigation into the recent fungal meningitis outbreak, which has sickened more than 300 Americans. The Committee sent letters to the New England Compounding Center, the Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration seeking records that will help the Committee better understand how the outbreak occurred and what warning signs may have existed. As the Committee assesses why federal and state regulatory agencies failed to detect and prevent the outbreak, the documents will inform the HELP Committee’s bipartisan oversight of this situation, and efforts to determine if further federal authorities are needed.
The following HELP Committee members signed onto the letters:
Tom Harkin (D-IA)
Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD)
Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
Patty Murray (D-WA)
Bernard Sanders (I-VT)
Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA)
Kay R. Hagan (D-NC)
Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Al Franken (D-MN)
Michael F. Bennet (CO)
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)
Michael B. Enzi (R-WY)
Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Richard Burr (R-NC)
Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT)
John McCain (R-AZ)
Pat Roberts (R-KS)
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Mark Kirk (R-IL)
Links to all three letters are below:
http://www.harkin.senate.gov/documents/pdf/508953ed23bb2.pdf
http://www.harkin.senate.gov/documents/pdf/5089541ecf785.pdf
http://www.harkin.senate.gov/documents/pdf/50895462ad3e7.pdf
