Lowering Prescription Drug Prices

January 12, 2007

H.R. 4 - Putting our seniors first.

Mr. Speaker. There is something wrong when we have our seniors paying record high drug prices and drug companies reporting record profits. Our seniors deserve nothing less than access to affordable medicine which they have earned through a lifetime of hard work. This legislation helps us achieve this by simply allowing the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to negotiate lower drug prices. Twenty-two million Americans would benefit from this proposal. Ninety-two percent of Americans support us allowing this negotiating authority. And Mr. Speaker, this proposal is intricately linked to ethics reform. Last week we enacted historical changes and now we are putting our seniors first and removing special interests from the picture. The minority had their chance when they were in the majority to put forth a drug bill that helped seniors with the high cost of medicines. Instead, they chose to help the drug companies increase their profits. Let's help our seniors by passing this important proposal. Thank you.