[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 40 (Wednesday, March 6, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S2220]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Prescription Drug Costs

  Mr. President, on a different matter, earlier this week, the Biden 
administration announced that it had received ``counteroffers'' in the 
so-called negotiations between HHS and medicine producers over 
government price setting.
  As I have pointed out recently, the administration spent years trying 
to corral world-leading producers of medical miracles into a socialist 
price-fixing scheme. And, for the past several months, they have 
described their kangaroo court as if it were a garden party.
  This week, HHS Secretary Becerra insisted:

       We are committed to constructive dialogue. . . . These are 
     good-faith, up front negotiations.

  Of course, as any working American knows, in a real negotiation, both 
parties have the ability to walk away. That is not the case when it 
comes to prescription drug socialism. The way these negotiations work, 
if a drug company doesn't agree to the ``maximum fair price,'' they can 
either agree to pay an excessive excise tax or they can withdraw 
entirely from participation in Medicaid and Medicare programs.
  Anyone can see that this process is anything but a good-faith 
negotiation. But that is not even the crux of the issue.
  Here is what is: Underneath the administration's rhetoric about 
lowering prices for American consumers, the hard reality is that 
prescription drug socialism means higher costs and fewer treatments.
  According to one estimate, this scheme would eliminate nine times as 
much funding as the 2016 Cancer Moonshot Initiative created. By another 
analysis, the Biden administration's drug pricing schemes will lead to 
139 fewer medicines over the next decade. And that is just on the 
treatment side.
  Over the next decade, prescription drug socialism would reportedly 
eliminate up to 135,000 jobs directly in the life sciences space in the 
United States and up to 670,000 jobs in related fields.
  Apparently, the Biden administration is really just out to make it 
harder for the world's foremost engine of medical innovation to do what 
it is best at--finding cures.
  And the worst side effect? The millions of people who will go without 
groundbreaking, American-made treatments.
  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. SCHUMER. 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.