[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 15816-15817]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     THE COST OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take the 
place of the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) in the 
order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from Ohio 
is recognized for 5 minutes.
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, 3 years ago today, the House of 
Representatives issued a declaration of independence from the powerful 
drug lobby. A tripartisan majority, lots of Members of both the 
Republican and Democratic Parties and the Independent from Vermont (Mr. 
Sanders), a tripartisan majority in the House passed legislation giving 
Americans access to safe, effective, and affordable medicine imported 
from Canada and other allied nations. Several of us in this body have 
over the years, and I began doing this 7 or 8 years ago, taken seniors 
from our districts, and I live in northern Ohio, up through Detroit 
into Windsor, Ontario, to buy prescription drugs at half or a third the 
price that Americans pay because Canada has found a way to negotiate 
directly with the drug industry and bring the prices down, saving, as I 
said, one half, two-thirds, three-fourths of the cost for prescription 
drugs.
  Our Congress, particularly the Republican majority, because it is so 
in thrall to the drug companies and so addicted to campaign 
contributions from the drug industry, have failed to do any of that 
until 3 years ago when that tripartisan majority in the House passed 
that legislation, giving Americans access to less expensive drugs, 
drugs imported from Canada and other nations that have a safe, 
predictable process that they are able to retail their drugs.
  But Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has never scheduled a floor 
vote in the Senate. Not 3 years ago, when we passed this bill; not 2 
years ago; not last year, not this year. And the American people 
continue to pay two and three and four times the cost of prescription 
drugs that we should have to pay, that the Canadians pay, that the 
French pay, that the Germans pay, that the Japanese or the Israelis or 
the Brits pay.
  Every day we delay, American consumers are paying as much as five 
times more than consumers in these other nations are paying for the 
same drugs, the same packaging, the same drug maker, the same 
everything. Every day we delay, the skyrocketing cost of prescription 
drugs makes it harder for American businesses to provide health 
insurance for their workers. Every day we delay puts American 
manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage as rising drug prices drown 
them in health care costs. And every day we delay puts the health of 
American consumers at risk as they are forced to split their pills, 
skip their doses, and make the heart-breaking choice between medicine 
and food or

[[Page 15817]]

between medicine and heat in the winter or between medicine and air 
conditioning on hot summer days like we have seen.
  And every day we delay increases the burden on American taxpayers as 
drug prices drive up the cost of Medicare, drive up the cost of 
Medicaid, drive up the cost of other public sector health programs.
  We should have sent President Bush an importation bill 3 years ago. 
It is not too late. We can still deliver for the American people if the 
Republican leadership in this House and if the Republican leadership in 
the Senate will commit to floor votes on importation legislation before 
the end of this year.
  Three years is too long to wait. It is time for leadership, for a 
change, to stand up to the drug lobby and to take a stand for American 
families, for American businesses, for America as a country.

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