[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 52 (Tuesday, April 26, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H2534]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   POWERFUL PHARMACEUTICAL LOBBYISTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gohmert). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, today on the front page of USA Today's 
business page, there was a headline, ``Pharmaceutical Industry Goes 
Furthest to Sway Congress.''
  Last year the pharmaceutical industry spent $158 million, just last 
year, to lobby Members of the United States Congress and Senate.
  Now, I know you may be shocked to know that it may not have been in 
your interest, $158 million to lobby the Members of the United States 
Congress and Senate. Since 1998, in 6 years, they have spent three-
quarters of a billion dollars lobbying, wining, dining Members of the 
United States Congress, taking them on golf trips, taking them on 
vacations, taking them to conferences, taking them out to meals, all to 
tell them about their industry.
  There are 1,300 pharmaceutical registered lobbyists. There are only 
535 Members of the United States Congress and Senate. There are 2\1/2\ 
lobbyists for every Member. Three-quarters of a billion dollars in 6 
years, $158 million last year alone, and 1,300 lobbyists working on 
behalf of the industry.
  About 475 of them, according to this article, are former Federal 
Government employees; 40 of them are former Members of Congress. It is 
the most influential and well-financed lobbying operation in 
Washington.
  Challenging the drug companies is always a costly undertaking, and, 
more often than not, it is a very difficult one and a losing one. But I 
want you to know what you are getting for your $158 million.
  Congress, when it passed a prescription drug bill last Congress, the 
108th, we prevented the United States Government from negotiating 
prices like the Veterans Administration does, like Wal-Mart does, like 
Sam's Club does when they want to negotiate. When they want to deal 
with a supplier they negotiate best prices, not the United States 
Government. It explicitly prevents the United States Government from 
negotiating on behalf of Medicare for 43 million seniors for the lowest 
possible price.
  What does it say to our taxpayers? What does it say to our senior 
citizens? We are not going to do best business practices like Sam's 
Club, like Lowe's, like other people who negotiate price. We will send 
you out there and make you pay the highest price possible, which is why 
the United States taxpayers and senior citizens pay the highest 
pharmaceutical prices of any major industrialized country in the world. 
That is what you got for their $158 million.
  What else did we get for that $158 million that they spent lobbying 
Members of Congress? We got a bill that prevented the reimportation of 
pharmaceutical products from Canada and Europe so we could not get 
competition and choice in the marketing of prices. That is why people 
in Canada pay 50 percent cheaper prices than we do here in the United 
States.
  What else did that $158 million get? It does not allow generic 
medications to come to market to compete against name-priced drugs. 
Every principle of the free market, whether you negotiate prices based 
on Medicare, just like Sam's Club, whether you allow competition 
through the free market and allow people to buy their drugs in Canada 
and Europe and use competition for Lipitor and for other types of 
products, or whether you allow generics to come to the market in a 
speedier time to compete against the name brand, every principle in the 
free market was prevented.
  We have a captive market in this country. We pay the most expensive 
prices. And the irony of ironies is that the American taxpayer through 
the R&D, Research and Development tax credit, subsidizes the research 
for the products that we buy, and we pay top dollar. That is why 
somebody has to do something about the $158 million, the three-quarters 
of a billion dollars, in 6 years, spent on behalf of an industry that 
has got the best government they can get for their resources they 
spend; 1,300 lobbyists working for the pharmaceutical industry; 2\1/2\ 
lobbyists for every Member of Congress.
  When you are working on their legislation, if you work down the halls 
of Congress and you see a shadow, it is usually theirs, not yours. 
Three-quarters of a billion dollars in 6 years, $158 million last year 
alone.
  It is estimated that the United States Congress, when it passed the 
prescription drug bill last Congress, that it resulted in an additional 
$150 billion over 10 years to the industry's profits. They know what 
they are doing. They know what they are getting for their money. They 
know what they are getting for their meals, for their lobbying, for 
their trips; but it is time that this Congress spoke up on behalf of 
the American people, the people that elected us, both the taxpayers and 
the senior citizens, and get them the types of medications they need at 
prices they can afford, and stand up to the lobbyists from the 
pharmaceutical industry who are only representing their narrow 
interests and have lost sight of what we have to do to represent the 
American people.

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