today's bill is a genuine prescription for lower prices for our seniors that should have been adopted a long time ago. Too often, our seniors hit the donut hole paying higher premiums with no drug coverage while the big drug companies run off with all the dough. During my service on the Ways and Means Committee, at every opportunity, I have offered an amendment for the same purpose as the bill we have today, to negotiate to protect our seniors and our taxpayers. But due to the power of the mighty pharmaceutical lobby and some late night shenanigans that happened right here on this floor and kept the Congress up all night to serve the interests of the pharmaceutical interests under the old Republican Congress, for the first time in this unique situation, we tell seniors and individuals with disabilities the government won't help. Indeed, I asked the Congressional Research Service to look at every statute on the federal books, and, boy, that is a lot of them. And they looked, and they were unable to find any language anywhere in any federal law like this that says to the government, you can't negotiate better prices for taxpayers and for seniors. So, today we should repeal that unreasonable one-of-a-kind limitation. For these Republicans to come out here who passed legislation to deny the choice of the government to negotiate to help seniors and today declare themselves to be ``pro-choice'' takes great audacity.
Editor's note · Context
Discussing a bill aimed at lowering drug prices for seniors and criticizing the pharmaceutical lobby.
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