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| Mark Up |
June 22, 2007 |
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Dear Friends,
"Mark-up" is the noun that we use in the Congress to refer to a committee meeting where we take legislation and amend it and pass it out of committee on toward the floor. "To mark" is the verb to describe this process. A "Chairman`s mark" is the draft of a piece of legislation prepared by the committee chairman that often serves as a basis for othe amendments.
In some committees, like Armed Services, mark-ups are rare. They usually have only one or two mark-ups a year and they seem to be set piece affairs. Likewise, Agriculture and Transportation and several other committees don`t move legislation frequently.
Energy and Commerce, the committee I have served on since joining the Congress, has very broad jurisdiction over lots of statutes. In fact, we may be the mark-up capitol of the capitol. And our mark-ups are not set piece affairs. It is a member-driven committee with lots of amendments and serious debate.
Thursday we marked nine health bills in our committee. We expected the session to last about four hours. It lasted ten.
Among other things, we are reauthorizing the Prescription Drug User Fee Act. This was the initiative started in 1992 to beef up the FDA and get new drugs reviewed faster so that they could get to patients. The program has reduced the review time for a new drug from 23 months to 14 months.
It is a law that has worked and deserves to be continued.
Wish you were here,
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