[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 20 (Tuesday, February 1, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S429]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Prescription Drug Costs

  On another matter, Mr. President, I want to talk about high drug 
prices.
  Three years ago, I began a bipartisan effort to lower prescription 
drug costs. And that isn't just a Chuck Grassley issue; that is a 
bipartisan issue.
  Following, first, Finance Committee hearings that I chaired, 
bipartisan negotiations, and a bill markup, I introduced with the 
senior Senator from Oregon a bill that we call Grassley-Wyden--but I 
don't care if it is called Wyden-Grassley. The point is the 
Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act will go a long way to stop the 
massive increase we have in drug prices. We passed this bill out of the 
Finance Committee on a bipartisan vote of 19 to 9. I have never stopped 
working to advance a bipartisan, negotiated, and balanced drug pricing 
bill.
  Drug prices are rising, and more Americans are having a harder time 
paying these high costs for prescription drugs. AARP says brand-name 
drugs that seniors use are going up at more than twice the rate of 
inflation. New data from another source, the National Health Interview 
Survey, estimates that 3.5 million seniors had difficulty affording 
their medication.
  I hear stories about rising drug costs all the time at my 99 county 
meetings. We have a Q&A at every one of those meetings so people can 
bring up any subject they want to bring up. They set the agenda, and 
always prescription drug pricing is on that agenda. The people probably 
asking the question, ``What are we going to do about prescription drug 
pricing?'' are probably the very same ones who are being hit by these 
high prices, and they notice the big increase in prices from year to 
year.
  As an example, Iowans tell me about the rising cost of their insulin 
or how they worry about paying for out-of-pocket costs in the doughnut 
hole. No matter how you look at it, drug costs are going up, and 
Americans are paying more.
  For 12 months, President Biden and the Democratic majority has 
focused on a partisan reckless tax-and-spending spree, and they have 
not made any progress in passing drug pricing reform as part of their 
partisan proposal. I compliment them for trying to do something about 
drug pricing, but it hasn't happened yet, and the way you get things 
done in the U.S. Senate is by doing it in a bipartisan way.
  By every public account, the talks in the other party on their agenda 
have stalled. In fact, as best evidence of this, just this very day, 
the senior Senator from West Virginia said that the Democrat bill is--
this is his word--``dead.''
  So instead of spending more time on bills that do not have votes, we 
could pass bipartisan legislation to lower drug costs this very day. It 
would have a meaningful impact on lowering prescription drug costs. 
Let's not waste another minute.
  So the Grassley-Wyden bill or the Wyden-Grassley bill remains our 
best chance to lower prescription drug costs in a bipartisan manner, 
and I urge my colleagues to work with me to pass this bill.

  I will give you just some examples--probably only a half dozen out of 
27 major pieces it has in it.
  No. 1, it caps out-of-pocket costs at $3,100. And I will have to give 
it to the Democrat proposal; they have reduced that down to $2,000. I 
am willing to negotiate 3,100 or 2,000.
  Secondly, it eliminates the doughnut hole.
  Third, it caps rising drug prices in Medicare at the inflation price 
index.
  Four, the bill ends uncapped taxpayer-funded subsidies for Big 
Pharma.
  Five, it brings more sunshine, more competition, and more oversight 
to how Big Pharma prices drugs in the first place.
  Lastly, out of 2,700 sections in this bill, I want to say it saves 
$72 billion for seniors and $95 billion for taxpayers.
  In addition to this bill, I have four prescription drug bills that 
have passed the Judiciary Committee with unanimous support. So, 
obviously, all four of those are bipartisan bills.
  These four bills bring more competition, let more affordable drugs 
come to the market, and end anticompetitive behavior by Big Pharma.
  I urge my colleagues to work with me to pass bipartisan drug pricing 
reform today.
  I will end by saying that, maybe early in the new administration, I 
had a telephone conversation with President Biden on the subject of 
drugs. He sent his legislative staff up here to meet with me on the 
subject. And I pointed out what they were trying to do, as I just 
pointed out to my colleagues today. They wanted to do it a different 
way; it doesn't seem to be getting traction. So I said to the 
President's staff--and I said to the President himself: You might want 
to take a look at this bipartisan bill, probably move it.