[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 43 (Wednesday, March 4, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1449-S1450]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS BILL

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, last week I described how Congress 
could quickly secure supplemental funding to combat the coronavirus. 
The way to secure these urgently needed resources with speed and 
certainty was to forgo partisan posturing, forgo micromanagement at the 
leadership level, and let the bipartisan appropriators do their work.
  Since then, Senator Shelby, Senator Leahy, and their counterparts in 
the House have worked on bipartisan, bicameral discussions. Thanks to 
their good work, we are close. The funding legislation appears to be 
about at the 5-yard line. I hope to complete the legislation and 
deliver this funding this week. We are close.
  In order to finish up, both sides will need to continue doing what 
has worked thus far and resist the temptation to impose any last-minute 
ideological demands. In particular, I have heard that the Democratic 
leadership may be contemplating a last-minute demand that this funding 
legislation also test drive some untried, untested, and controversial 
parts of their Medicare for All proposal that relate to the pricing of 
new drugs and innovations.
  So, look, everyone agrees that the potential diagnostics, 
therapeutics, or vaccines that might come out of this new funding 
cannot only be available to the ultrawealthy. We all agree on that. 
Everyone agrees. We already have longstanding, tried-and-true 
procedures so the government can buy and distribute new medicines in 
scenarios like this to ensure accessibility. These mechanisms are 
already in place. There is no need and this is no time to begin 
experimenting with ideological proposals that could jeopardize 
research, development, and innovation. Like I said, the accessibility 
of treatments or vaccines is a priority for everybody, but before new 
technologies can be accessible, they obviously have to be available.
  This is a moment to empower innovators, to incentivize innovators. It 
is a time to remove hurdles to innovation, not build new hurdles and 
create new uncertainty through ideological experimentation.
  So I hope these rumors do not prove true. I am optimistic we will be 
able to close out the remaining questions and process this legislation 
in short order. This moment calls for collaboration

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and for unity. Our bicameral, bipartisan talks have made great headway. 
It is time to give our public health experts and healthcare 
professionals the surge of resources they need at this challenging 
time.

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