[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 151 (Thursday, September 19, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5587-S5588]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Prescription Drug Costs

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, today Speaker Pelosi unveiled the House's 
plan to try to lower out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs. This, 
of course, has been a priority for many of us in Washington, including 
the Presiding Officer.
  We have been working on it really hard here in the Senate. Actually, 
three standing committees of the Senate have now reported out 
legislation dealing with this issue: the Judiciary Committee, the 
Finance Committee, and the HELP Committee, or the Health, Education, 
Labor, and Pensions Committee. All are working together to try to come 
with up bipartisan packages to lower prescription drug costs.
  These bills, of course, include ideas from Republicans and Democrats.
  Mr. President, apparently, we have some technical difficulties here.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. I can hear you better now.
  Mr. CORNYN. It sounds like we have fixed that. Thank you.
  As I was saying, while these bills include ideas from both 
Republicans and Democrats, it shouldn't surprise people that in an area 
as complex as this, there are going to be some disagreements along the 
way. But that is what we do here: We work through those disagreements 
and try to build consensus.
  While I know that it is only a bipartisan bill that has any chance at 
all to

[[Page S5588]]

make its way to the President's desk for his signature, Speaker Pelosi 
appears to have a different approach. House Democrats want to replace 
our free-market healthcare system with the heavyhanded government 
approach that puts us on a path to socialized medicine. They want to 
allow the government to set prices and put bureaucrats at the center of 
our healthcare system, instead of patients.
  The Speaker's plan is just the latest example of a partisan messaging 
document masquerading as legislation, and it has absolutely no chance--
zero, zip, nada--of passing the Senate or becoming law.
  In contrast, the ideas we have been working on would lower out-of-
pocket costs by increasing competition and transparency, while stopping 
the bad actors who try to game the system. Unlike the House, we have 
been considering bills that have broad bipartisan support, as I said, 
which means they have the potential to actually become law, to get 
something done.
  Speaker Pelosi should take note that we in the Senate have done the 
hard work of finding consensus with our colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle. I encourage our friends in the House of Representatives to stop 
wasting time and, instead, start working in a bipartisan fashion and 
work on legislation that can actually become law. Only then will the 
American people see the benefit of a reduction in out-of-pocket costs 
for their prescription drugs.