Congressman Kelly Armstrong's Statement on Speaker Pelosi's Partisan Drug Bill

Statement

Congressman Kelly Armstrong released the following statement today on the House vote on Speaker Nancy Pelosi's partisan drug pricing bill, H.R. 3:

"Speaker Pelosi's partisan drug bill will lead to fewer cures for patients. It suffocates innovation and development, and it could keep dozens of life-saving prescription drugs from entering the market in the next decade. There is an alternative. H.R. 19, the Lower Costs, More Cures Act, is a package of bipartisan proposals that would lower out-of-pocket costs, encourage new cures, and increase price transparency and accountability measures. The Lower Costs, More Cures Act is what the House should be voting on, not Speaker Pelosi's partisan bill that has no chance of becoming law."

Speaker Pelosi has abandoned bipartisan efforts to reduce drug prices:

-Instead of allowing a vote on the bills that earned unanimous support in committees, "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is holding a Thursday vote on a drug pricing bill supported only by Democrats," the Washington Post reported earlier this week.
-In May, a Washington Post headline read, "Democrats are putting a political pothole in the way of bipartisan drug pricing bills." The report said that Speaker Pelosi's move to tack on unrelated measures had "alienate[d] Republicans," who hold the Senate and the White House.

The Lower Costs, More Cures Act (H.R. 19) was recently introduced by Congressman Greg Walden (R, Ore.), Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R, N.C.), and Congressman Doug Collins (R, Ga.). The bill includes policy that has previous bipartisan support.

Armstrong is serving his first term representing the state of North Dakota in the U.S. House of Representatives. He sits on the House Judiciary Committee, the House Oversight and Reform Committee, and the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.

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