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[Page: H3862]  GPO's PDF
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   The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of January 23, 2002, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.

   Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to follow up on the comments of my friend, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone), about the prescription drug industry, the unwillingness of this Congress, which is so captured by corporate prescription drug company special interests and the Republican leadership ties to those large corporate drug company interests, and why this Congress will not move forward on providing a prescription drug benefit inside America for America's seniors and doing something about the outrageous price scheme that prescription drug companies inflict on this country.

[Page: H3863]  GPO's PDF

   We are talking about an industry that has been one of the most profitable industries in America, return on investment, return on sales, return on equity, for almost every one of the last 20 years. We are also talking about an industry, the prescription drug industry, which has the lowest tax rate of any industry in America. We are also talking about an industry where half of the research and development that flows to new prescription drugs is given by taxpayers through the National Institutes of Health and foundations and others. Yet Americans are rewarded by paying more for their prescription drugs than people in any other country in the world.

   America's seniors pay two and three times what seniors in Canada and France and Germany and Israel and Japan and nations all over the globe pay. The reason for that, Mr. Speaker, is in large part because of the lobbying force, the lobbying strength, the prowess of the prescription drug industry.

   There are more than 600 lobbyists for the prescription drug industry that lobby this Congress, more than 600 people. There are very close ties between the prescription drug industry and the President of the United States. There are very close ties between the prescription drug industry and the Republican leadership in this Congress.

   All you had to do was watch last week in the Committee on Energy and Commerce, watch vote after vote after vote on the prescription drug legislation, where many of us were saying we want a Medicare prescription drug benefit, we wanted to do something about prices, we believe that senior citizens should have as good a benefit as Members of Congress. Every amendment we had to do that, Republicans down the line in every case voted no.

   I had an amendment to the legislation that said no senior should get a prescription drug benefit less than any Member of Congress. That was voted down on a party-line vote. Other Democrats had amendments to try to control prices, to try to bring prices down, to try to bring competition into the prescription drug business so we would see prices drop. Those were voted down on party-line votes. But when it came to subsidizing insurance companies for prescription drug benefit, that is what the Republicans supported.

   Let me compare the two pieces of legislation, the Democratic plan and the Republican plan; and you can see the influence that the prescription drug industry had over Republican leaders.

   The Democratic plan has a $25-a-month premium. The Republican plan has a premium that will be set by the insurance companies, somewhere between $35 and $85 a month. The Democratic plan had a $100 deductible. The Republican plan had a deductible, again set by the insurance industry, but probably upwards of $250.

   The Democratic plan had for the first $1,000 of costs, out-of-pocket costs for seniors, they would only pay 20 percent, the first $1,000; 20 percent of the second $1,000; and the government would pick up the cost beyond that. In the Republican plan, the seniors will reach into their pockets and pay thousands of dollars more than under the Democratic plan.

   As the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone) said earlier, the Republican plan does nothing to restrain prices so that Americans will continue to pay two and three and four times for their prescriptions what people in every other country in the world pay.

   Now, not coincidentally, last week we stopped our markup in the middle of the day one day so the Republican Members could go to a fundraiser underwritten by the prescription drug industry. The Chair of the fundraiser was the CEO of a British prescription drug company GlaxoWellcome. He and his company contributed $250,000 to get Republicans elected to Congress. Other drug companies gave $150,000 and $250,000 to this event.

   The next day after this event, which raised millions and millions of dollars for Republicans, millions of which, several hundred thousand, millions of which actually came from drug companies, the next day this committee voted down the line over and over again, with Republicans supporting the drug industry.

   It should come as no surprise as you watch this drug debate unfold this week, or maybe when we come back through the month of July, you will see Republicans continue to do the bidding of the prescription drug industry. That is one reason the Democratic plan should pass, which is written for and by seniors over the Republican plan, which is written for and by the drug companies.

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