[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 96 (Tuesday, July 13, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H5545]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   LETTING AVERAGE AMERICANS PREVAIL

  (Mr. NADLER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, time after time in this body, the interests 
of the middle-class have come in second to the interests of the special 
interests. One example is the issue of drug reimportation.
  Medications in other counties cost 40 percent less than they do here. 
Even Secretary Tommy Thompson recently acknowledged what Americans know 
all too well, reimporting prescription drugs from Canada and other 
industrialized countries is one of the fastest ways Americans can get 
lower cost drugs. Experts at Boston University estimate Americans would 
save $60 billion by paying Canadian prices for brand-name drugs. What 
are we waiting for?
  Republicans in Congress continue to stall, promoting the false 
promise of the new prescription drug discount cards as a substitute for 
reimportation. When the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) offered an 
amendment in the agricultural appropriation bill in committee that 
allowed for the safe reimportation of prescription drugs, Republicans 
tried to block it and failed. Today, that bill is on the floor. It 
would allow Americans to purchase these prescription drugs from other 
countries and lower drug costs in a straightforward way.
  We should pass that amendment. I dare the Republicans to block it, as 
I know they will, because they are the servants of the pharmaceutical 
companies, and they are even trying to put that into the treaty with 
Australia.

                          ____________________