[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 13]
[HO]
[Page 17755]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    PRESCRIPTION DRUG REIMPORTATION

  (Mr. EMANUEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, the stars have aligned. Senator Frist has 
agreed to a vote on drug reimportation. That is how we recognize health 
care reform and Health Care Week and make a dent in skyrocketing health 
care costs. Now we are getting somewhere.
  I should not have to remind Members of this body that in the last 
Congress here in the House we passed reimportation with a bipartisan 
majority. It is time now for an up-or-down vote in this House. In the 
very week we are debating health care reform, only 1 week, I might add, 
what is conspicuously absent? The one item which actually would help 
control costs of drugs and pharmaceutical products, the reimportation, 
providing Americans with a 50 percent reduction in the price of their 
prescription drugs.
  Springfield, Massachusetts saved $6 million in the first year they 
began importing prescription drugs. But we cannot have any of that here 
in the people's House. No. We get to vote on protecting drug companies 
like Merck, who make Vioxx, from any public redress for misleading the 
public. George Orwell would appreciate that.
  Americans can no longer afford double-digit increases in prescription 
drugs. Mr. Speaker, it is time we give them a break and a vote on 
reimportation of pharmaceutical products. That is the right way to make 
progress on controlling health care costs.

                          ____________________