A bipartisan call for less red tapeSince the invention of the pacemaker and the formation of Medtronic, little has fired up the entire Minnesota congressional delegation like medical technology, an industry that has made a big mark in the state's economy.
On Thursday, the state's six Democrats and four Republicans in Washington signed a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) calling for the government to cut the red tape in the review process for medical devices.
"We are very concerned that delays in this process are hindering innovation, delaying patient access to new therapies, and undermining the U.S. medical industry's global leadership," the bipartisan group of Minnesotans wrote to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg.
The letter continues, "While we support your mission of ensuring that safe and effective devices reach the marketplace, we feel that we can achieve that goal while still balancing our ability to develop innovative life-saving therapies."
The Minnesota delegation highlighted that over recent years, the percentage of medical devices approved during the first review cycle has declined dramatically.
The five largest medical device firms in Minnesota -- Medtronic, 3M, Boston Scientific, St. Jude Medical, and American Medical Systems -- generate more than $22 billion in sales, according to a 2010 state report.
KEVIN DIAZ
TPaw's homegrown endorsementsWhile Rep. Michele Bachmann is the Minnesotan surging in the polls nationally, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty sought to show he's winning on the home front last week with a list of 100 "conservative Minnesotans" who are endorsing him for president.
The list includes current and former Minnesota legislators, including Minnesota House Speaker Kurt Zellers, as well as several Minnesota CEOs and top business executives. Many of the endorsers are also Pawlenty contributors.
One name that's not included: Ron Carey, Bachmann's former chief of staff and former state GOP chairman, who wrote an op-ed piece in the Des Moines Register on Monday that said Pawlenty is ready to be president but Bachmann is not.
JEREMY HERB
Bachmann vs. the TwinsBachmann is remembered for many things in Minnesota, but her last-minute attempt to keep the Minnesota Twins from getting public subsidies for a new ballpark may not be one of them.
But as a state senator in 2006, Bachmann won friends -- and made enemies -- for her late charge to try to scuttle the Twins' attempt to get the Legislature to approve the plan.
At 4:30 in the morning on May 21, as the Senate moved to adjournment for the year and her colleagues raced to adopt the plan, Bachmann fought to derail an attempt to build the stadium by allowing Hennepin County to impose a county sales tax for it.
Her move to send the subsidy plan back to a committee for more study was defeated 42-24. Her fight came as the project, at the time, was widely opposed in public opinion polls. It also, albeit briefly, aligned the Republican lawmaker with some unlikely colleagues, such as Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, a longtime stadium subsidy opponent.
"This is not about who likes the Twins, and who likes baseball and who doesn't," Bachmann said. She said that, after reading the legislation, it should be called the "'We [the Twins] get every benefit, you [the taxpayer] get every liability' bill."
MIKE KASZUBA
