Grassley, Feinstein Announce Witnesses for Drug Caucus Hearing on Controlled Substances Quota Process

Improving Management of the Controlled Substances Quota Process 

*****HEARING RESCHEDULED*****

Please note the following hearing has been rescheduled for 10 a.m. on Tuesday, May 5, 2015, in 226 Dirksen Senate Office Building.  The witnesses remain the same.

            WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the leaders of the Caucus on International Narcotics Control, today announced the witness list for the caucus hearing on the quota system used to manage controlled substances in medicine in light of a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) showing problems in the way the process is managed.

The hearing, “Improving Management of the Controlled Substances Quota Process,” is set for Tuesday, April 14, 2015, at 10 a.m. Eastern in 226 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.  The hearing will have one panel with three government witnesses.  They are:

Marcia Crosse, Director of the Health Care Team at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), Washington, D.C.;

Captain Valerie Jensen, Associate Director of the Drug Shortages Program at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Washington, D.C.; and

Joseph Rannazzisi, Deputy Assistant Administrator of Drug Diversion with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Washington, D.C.

The GAO report found that the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is responsible for setting quotas for manufacturing controlled substances, does not have an adequately collaborative relationship with the Food and Drug Administration to manage the quota process, and identified other DEA management shortcomings that may affect its ability to do so.  The report makes recommendations to improve both the DEA-FDA relationship as well as the DEA’s internal management of the quota process.. The report is available here.

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