But defying the mood in the room, representatives of four breast cancer advocacy groups testified in favor of the F.D.A.'s proposal to withdraw the approval.
Achievement of the year 2015 targets, centred around the rights of children, is an essential first step - and today we have, in one room, representatives of the very institutions and groups whose commitments can pave the way.
"If you turn away for a second," said Adrian Rincon, a tasting-room representative at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars in Napa, "some will pour themselves a glass of wine.
"There was a lot of agreement in the room," said Representative George Miller of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
In three recent meetings at the White House, Mr. McConnell's staff pointed out, the chief of staff in his leadership office, Sharon Soderstrom, was the only woman in the room besides Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader.
Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, said mothers were calling his interns to ask, "Does the senator have you in the mail room?" One representative's chief of staff said he was taking those calls himself and trying to reassure parents.
"It is like saying we have flooding in the basement and wiring that might make a fire, yet we are decorating and putting hardwood floors in the living room," said Representative Frank R. Wolf, Republican of Virginia, who is chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee on transportation.
Round the room sat representatives of an outraged world.
