Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, polls show a surprising interest of Americans in the high cost of prescription drugs. It seems to be an issue that unites Americans. I often point out that Washington is an island surrounded by reality. Here inside the Beltway, people are obsessed with partisan impeachment proceedings. It seems like morning, noon, and night, the relentless effort to unseat the President of the United States is a toxic strain of Potomac fever infecting Capitol Hill.
Now, if only Congress would channel every waking minute to fix problems in the real world, wouldn't that be wonderful? So let me provide a reality check. For people living in the real world, impeachment inquiry is not what keeps Americans up at night. It is not what wakes up moms and dads worried sick about paying for their child's insulin. It is not what drains the pocketbooks of seniors and takes a big bite out of people's paychecks. The issue that unites Americans from Maine, to Iowa, to Oregon is the sky-high prices that Americans and the taxpaying public are paying for prescription medicine.
As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, I am working in a bipartisan way to fix what is broken in our drug supply chain. In February, we called the heads of Big Pharma to testify before the Finance Committee. Next, we heard from the largest pharmacy benefit managers to examine rebates and unravel the pricing supply chain. There was an awful lot of finger-pointing between the various interests about the soaring drug prices that Americans pay for pharmaceuticals. That finger-pointing, we heard in our committee. Finger-pointing doesn't decrease drug prices because the real problem is there is too much secrecy and not enough accountability in the industry of pricing drugs.
When drug prices grow by leaps and bounds, year after year, it is time to look under the hood. It is time to kick the tires along the drug supply chain and check the gauge on the competition. Why in the world is insulin, just as an example--a drug that has been on the market for nearly 100 years--doubling or tripling in price for patients in the United States? It is surely not that way in Europe.
We have gotten lots of feedback from patient advocates, healthcare providers, and free market proponents. The pushback from Big Pharma reveals that we are really on to something. Congress needs to take its foot off the brake. It is time to deliver real savings, and our bill will deliver real savings to consumers and to the taxpayers. It is time to pass reforms that will cut prescription drug costs for the American people.
Now, some of my colleagues may require a more blunt call to action so I want to use the two-by-four illustration. Join us and score a win for the American people. Otherwise, do nothing and risk being on the losing side of the ballot box next November.
At my annual 99 county meetings where I always hold a Q&A with whatever groups of constituents gather, I hear the same message from people all across the State of Iowa. They have family members and they have neighbors who struggle to pay for prescription management, to manage chronic health conditions, and to treat diseases. Thanks to breakthrough treatments and cures, Americans are living longer and healthier lives.
Many are beating the odds of a diagnosis that would have been a death sentence a generation ago. However, if a loved one is diagnosed with MS or diabetes or cystic fibrosis, no miracle cure will help if Americans can't afford to pay for their medicine. It will not help seniors if sky-high prices drain taxpayer-financed health programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Soaring drug prices are forcing too many Americans to skimp on other necessities or even ration their doses of prescriptions that they take.
Now, I just mentioned, as an example, cystic fibrosis. Last month, the FDA approved a promising new treatment for this progressive genetic disorder. Cystic fibrosis impacts about 30,000 Americans. There is nothing parents will not do to advocate for their child living with this condition. That is how I met one family from Iowa a few years ago. That is when I launched the bipartisan Senate caucus on cystic fibrosis, to add our voices for awareness and advocacy. Now, I am told the price tag for the new drug is more than $300,000 per patient, per year.
Without a doubt, this drug raises the roof of hope for tens of thousands of families, but it also raises a red flag about drug prices. If prices keep going through the roof year after year, how will Americans who depend on prescription medicines afford them? America's drug pricing regime is broken. It requires reform to sustain fiscal sustainability and also to steer incubation and innovation forward. It needs more transparency. It needs better incentives. It needs real competition to drive down prices. So all 100 of us have our work cut out for us.
Big Pharma doesn't want the pipeline to the Federal Treasury tightened at all, and they will spend big money to scare people away from reasonable solutions that will deliver real savings and get the best deal for the taxpayers. I referred to our working in a bipartisan way. So, in July, Ranking Member Wyden and I secured broad, bipartisan support in our Finance Committee--19 denying vote.
Our bill would save taxpayers more than $100 billion. That is not this Senate saying that. That is the Congressional Budget Office. The bill caps out-of-pocket costs for seniors. The bill saves their households more than $30 billion. We fine-tuned and improved our bill to gain more momentum and more support. Part of that support and one of the outstanding advocates for what we are trying to do doesn't happen to be a member of the Finance Committee, but it is my good friend from Maine, Senator Collins, right here on the floor. I will yield to her in short time.
She is helping lead the fight to reduce drug prices. We have been working together on many issues. I am a former chairman of the Special Committee on Aging, and she is the current chair of the Special Committee on Aging. We are committed to help older Americans lead productive lives. We also share a top priority not to miss a vote. While I might have a stronger voting streak, Susan hasn't missed a single vote. I hope Maine appreciates a person who has been in the Senate since 1997 and hasn't missed a single vote.
Senator Collins is one of those rare lawmakers who doesn't care who gets the credit, as long as we are doing the right thing. The name of this bill that I am talking about--and I imagine she will refer to--is the Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act. That will be the right thing to do, and it will do the right thing. So it is time for Congress to do the right thing.
Just in case I said anything different about Senator Collins that is not accurate, she can feel free to correct me, but I now yield to Senator Collins, a strong voice for this piece of legislation.
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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, first of all, it is a pleasure to work with Senator Shaheen on this bill. I am very happy to work together. We have the same goals in mind. For the cynical people outside of Washington, DC, that say there is never any Republican or Democratic cooperation, there is kind of a rule around here that Senator Shaheen and I are examples of, but it applies to all 100 Senators.
If you really want to get something done, you have to seek bipartisanship in this body. I can quantify that in this way. There are 53 Republicans. There are 47 Democrats. But if there were 53 Democrats and 47 Republicans, the same rule would apply.
About 99 percent of the legislation that gets done around here has to have 60 votes to stop debate before you can even vote on the bill. So obviously, even if all 53 Republicans were voting together--and that doesn't happen very often--you still wouldn't get the 60 votes to pass a piece of legislation. So that is why almost every major piece of legislation that gets through here--and this example of Shaheen- Grassley is just another example--it is because you seek bipartisanship, and it is just nice that it has to be that way.
So addressing this issue, I can say I associate myself with the remarks of Senator Shaheen and sit down, but there is kind of a rule around the Senate. Everything that has been said on this bill has been said, but I haven't said it yet, and I am going to say it.
I recently introduced S. 2770, known as the Survivors' Bill of Rights in the States Act of 2019, with Senator Shaheen and Senator Tillis. This measure is a companion to what Congresswoman Speier developed and introduced in the other Chamber. It builds on legislation entitled the Survivors' Bill of Rights Act that we adopted in 2016.
As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the last Congress, I worked closely with a young woman, Amanda Nguyen, on the development of that 2016 measure prior to its introduction. Amanda, a survivor of sexual assault, found and leads the nonprofit organization known as Rise, R-I-S-E.
She also worked with Senator Shaheen on the same legislation, introducing the final version in this Chamber. We incorporated that 2016 package of rights into an amendment that I offered to another measure before the Senate Judiciary Committee. In May 2016, that legislation passed this Chamber 89 to 0. In October 2016, the House version, which was introduced later, was signed by the President.
The bills that we introduced this month on the 2016 Survivors' Bill of Rights, it makes each State eligible to receive a Federal grant to implement a similar package of rights for victims of sex crimes at the State level. Such rights include, for example, the right to know the results of your forensic exam, the right to have evidence preserved for a certain period, and the right to notice before your forensic kit is destroyed.
A State also may use its Justice Department grants to preserve sexual assault evidence kits, reduce the number of kits awaiting testing, and extend additional assistance to crime victims under our legislation. Finally, the measure we introduced authorizes 20 million annually for each of the fiscal years 2021 through 2024 to support the implementation of the new grant program established by this bill. I urge my colleagues to join us in cosponsoring the Survivors' Bill of Rights in the States Act of 2019.
I thank Senator Shaheen for joining in this effort and leading this bill and, most importantly, to compliment her over a long period of time in the Senate--and probably even before she came to the Senate-- her commitment to working with me and with people generally on the issue of increased protection for victims of sexual assault.
Again, I thank Congresswoman Speier and her staff for initiating this measure in the House and for working so hard to develop a bicameral, bipartisan measure, and I thank Senator Shaheen once again.
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