In whose interest

[Seamus Fermanagh]

It is a tough issue - especially since those in Congress are probably utterly incapable of adequately understanding the data - so those that can understand it are probably going to be under the sway of Big Bad Pharma and that those who are left will probably do more harm than good.

The FDA are used to being all-powerful so I'm not surprised their arrogance is almost unlimited.

The staff of a typical congress critter includes some really bright people, often several who are crackerjack with stats especially. But they are all political wonks and their critter has to be funded for their reelection bid 17 months after they take office. At just under 1.7M for a winning election bid (on average) your average congress critter must bank an average of $2300 a day. The brains on a Congressional staff are BUSY and it isn't crunching the numbers for their glib representative to know whether the FDA is slow, painfully slow, or criminally slow.