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KENNEDY ON PRESIDENT’S SIGNING OF COLLEGE COST REDUCTION ACT AND FDA BILL


WASHINGTON, DC— Today, Senator Edward M. Kennedy made the followingremarks on the signing into law of the College Cost Reduction Act and the FDAAmendments Act. Senator Kennedy is the lead Senate sponsor of both measures.The College Cost Reduction Act will provide the largest increase in student aid since theGI Bill– helping millions of students and families pay for college at no new cost totaxpayers. With more than $20 billion in new aid, an increase in the maximum value ofthe Pell Grant scholarship, and easing the financial burdens of college costs on lowincomeand minority students, this legislation will give students across the country accessto college. The FDA Amendments Act will give FDA urgently needed new resources, strengthenFDA's ability to protect consumers from dangerous drugs, provide important incentivesto develop drugs for children, safeguard the food we give our families and feed to ourpets, help reduce the cost of medicine by ending abusive practices that deny consumersaccess to generic drugs, and address many other urgent priorities that face the nation.(As Prepared for Delivery) Today is a landmark day. Congress and the Administration have delivered on twoof the issues that matter most to the American people.With the two bills signed into law today, we’re providing the largest increase incollege aid since the GI Bill and the most significant advances in food and drug safety indecades. From its earliest days as a nation, education has been the engine of the Americandream. Today, we’re helping millions of students achieve that dream by providing $20billion in new aid for college students, the largest increase since the GI Bill.When President Roosevelt signed that bill into law in 1944, our country gavehope and opportunity to an entire generation. The goal of that bill was that no veteranreturning from the war should be denied a college education because of its cost. Today, with this new law, we’re saying that the hundreds of thousands of youngmen and women who can’t afford college today deserve the same hope and opportunity.It’s a new national commitment to the American Dream, a new commitment toopportunity for young Americans, and a new commitment to a stronger, better nation inthe years ahead. The FDA law is a similar giant step. Every day, families rely on the Food and Drug Administration in ways they barelyrealize. From pacemakers for the heart to treatments for cancer to the food we eat, FDAprotects the health of millions of Americans, and oversees products that account for aquarter of the entire economy. Americans are increasingly concerned about the safety of the products they use –from food to toys to drugs – and they are right to be worried. Dangerous lapses inoversight have exposed families to intolerable risks. The bipartisan legislation just signed by The President will help all Americansreap the benefits of this new century of the life sciences. It provides urgently neededadditional resources to FDA to see that new medicines are not slowed by needless delays. It strengthens safety rules for the wave of new miracle drugs coming on themarket that Americans count on to protect their health. It brings needed reassurance tofamilies that the food they feed their pets is safe. And it expedites the development of new research methods and techniques to takefull advantage of the vast potential that modern science is capable of achieving for thebenefit of all our citizens. Democrats and Republicans and Congress and the Administration worked welltogether to produce these two significant new laws and I hope the same spirit ofcooperation will guide our action on the many other large challenges we face. ###