[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 18 (Wednesday, January 31, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S292-S293]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Prescription Drug Costs

  Mr. President, now, on another subject, tomorrow the world-leading 
innovators that have produced medical cures here in America will face 
yet another compliance deadline from Washington Democrats' price-fixing 
scheme. As I have discussed before, the so-called Inflation Reduction 
Act includes a price-fixing mechanism that requires drug manufacturers 
to agree to a crooked negotiation process, pay an excessive fine or 
take their drugs off the market.
  By February 1, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, CMS, 
are required to send each drug company a

[[Page S293]]

little Valentine's Day gift: their initial ``maximum fair price'' offer 
for each selected drug. Calling this price-fixing scheme a negotiation 
is like calling a bank robbery a transaction. In any fair negotiation, 
either party has the ability to walk away from a deal they don't like. 
But in this case, if a drug company fails to agree to the ``maximum 
fair price'' determined by unelected bureaucrats in a government 
Agency, the company has two options: They can agree to pay an excise 
tax capturing up to 1,900 percent of the drug's daily revenue; if not, 
the IRA would force them to withdraw entirely from participation in the 
Medicaid and Medicare programs.
  So, unsurprisingly, multiple drugmakers have sued the Federal 
Government over the IRA's price-fixing racket. The companies have 
argued that the IRA's requirements constitute an uncompensated taking 
of property in violation of the takings clause.
  In response, my colleague from Vermont, Senator Sanders, decided to 
call the CEOs of all these companies to testify before the Senate HELP 
Committee, and the timing is no coincidence. As a recent editorial 
pointed out, ``Mr. Sanders doesn't want to negotiate, or conduct actual 
oversight. He wants to keelhaul the CEOs as punishment for suing the 
government.''
  Of course, the ultimate victims are not the innovators but the 
patients who will never receive lifesaving treatments. By one estimate, 
the incentives eliminated by this scheme would have delivered nine 
times as much funding for cancer research as then-Vice President 
Biden's own 2016 Cancer Moonshot Initiative provided.
  The simple truth of the matter is that socialism doesn't work. The 
government can't wave a magic wand and make prices go down. And 
expressing anger about prices to a CEO won't lower prices either.
  So perhaps instead of holding show trials on high prices, Washington 
Democrats might reconsider how their own reckless taxing and spending 
policies have created an economy that is failing innovators, patients, 
and working families alike.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.