Congressman Questions the Government Witch-Hunt Against Lance Armstrong

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Congressman Jack Kingston (R-Ga) questioned the importance of the government witch-hunt that has targeted celebrity athletes accused of steroids after a budget hearing for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Kingston is the Subcommittee Chairman in the House Appropriations Committee who is responsible for directing government spending for the FDA.

FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg appeared before the subcommittee to ask for more money to carry out the tasks of the FDA but Kingston questioned how effectively the FDA was prioritizing their current spending. Kingston talked to Nate Vinton of the New York Daily News about the FDA’s misguided focus on pursuing Lance Armstrong suggesting that the FDA does not have its priorities straight.

“My question was, how much has been spent on this, who is (Novitzky) answering to, and how many employees are involved with it,” Kingston told the Daily News after the hearing. “I know that they did go to France, for example, as part of this investigation. Where is it going?”

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Kingston said the FDA’s highest priorities should include curtailing the abuse of prescription drugs like Oxycontin and regulating the supply chain of the anticoagulant Heparin. Kingston said he hasn’t met Armstrong, whose attorneys have called the federal investigation a waste of taxpayer money. A 10-term Republican who advocates smaller government, Kingston said Hamburg had asked for a 15% increase in the FDA’s budget.

“When you’re talking over and over again about limited resources and serious drug abuses and issues, is that what we need to spend our money on, a guy using some kind of enhancement drug?” asked Kingston. “Let’s say that Lance Armstrong is guilty. What did we accomplish, and at the expense of what else?”

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“Part of what we have to do is make sure agencies have their priorities straight,” said Kingston. “It might be a red-hot investigation, but we still have to know who’s authoritizing it.”

Kingston seems to feel that the government has wasted taxpayer money funding a witch-hunt which provided little benefit in return. He also suggests that the FDA’s focus on steroid use by celebrity athletes may have resulted in the FDA’s failure to protect the public health in other important areas.