Lower Drug Costs Now Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Chairman, I thank my friend and ranking Republican on Ways and Means for the opportunity, and I thank him for his leadership on this important issue.

Mr. Chairman, we all agree that the prices of drugs are too high. We agree that something needs to be done to fix this for all Americans, not just our seniors.

The problem I have--and it is a big problem--is the way we go about doing this. It is like a rerun of ObamaCare. It is this government knows best, this top-down, government-controlled, let's tax, regulate, and mandate our way to a better system. It doesn't work.

So we are doubling down on a failed philosophy on how to deliver affordable quality products to the American people.

The approach should be more choices, more competition, a healthier market, and greater transparency.

By the way, we have worked on those issues in a bipartisan fashion. I have introduced two pieces of legislation with my Democrat friends that would do just that.

The problem here is not just this top-down, heavy-handed government knows best, let's fix the crisis and assume nothing bad will happen. It is that nothing is going to come of this H.R. 3. It is a messaging bill. It is purely political, and it won't help the people whom we all intend to help.

I do not judge the motives of my colleagues. I think they want to help our seniors just as I do. But we can't do it with partisan messaging bills. We have to do it by working together.

In a former life, I was vice chancellor at Texas Tech, and I was responsible for bringing new drug technologies, therapies, and biologics to market.

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