Leaders Of Senate and House Judiciary Committees
Reintroduce Bipartisan Legislation To
Counter Rising Prescription Drug Prices
WASHINGTON (THURSDAY, April 27, 2017) – Top leaders on the Senate and House Judiciary Committees led by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Thursday introduced legislation to combat anticompetitive practices used by some brand-name pharmaceutical and biologic companies to block entry of lower-cost generic drugs. The Creating and Restoring Equal Access to Equivalent Samples (CREATES) Act would deter pharmaceutical companies from blocking cheaper generic alternatives from entering the marketplace. The bill is sponsored by Leahy and cosponsored by Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), leaders of the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights. Lead sponsor, Representative Tom Marino (R-Pa.) and Representative David Cicilline (D-R.I.), Chairman and Ranking Member, respectively, of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law, introduced an identical version of the bill in the House.
Leahy said: “Vermonters and American families across the nation know from hard experience that many prescription drugs are simply too expensive. Vermonters tell me that the high cost of prescription drugs has become their top health care concern. When brand companies can drive up the price of drugs through predatory practices, patients suffer. Illnesses worsen. Families, government programs, and other payers in the healthcare system ultimately bear those added, unnecessary costs. Strategies wielded by these firms to delay entry of lower cost generic drugs are wrong, and they cause real harm. Drug affordability is a bipartisan issue that affects every American. This needs to be a high priority. I’m committed to working on behalf of Vermonters to see that the CREATES Act and other vital initiatives to address the high cost of prescription drugs are signed into law.”
“I frequently hear from Iowans about the high price of prescription drugs. Many Americans rely on more affordable generic medications once patents have expired for brand-name drugs,” Grassley said. “Unfortunately, we’re seeing some brand-name drug companies engage in anti-competitive tactics that delay entry of lower cost generic drugs into the market. This bill takes important steps to improve the current system so that consumers have access to less expensive generic drugs in a timely fashion.”
“When people get sick, their focus should be on getting well, not on how to pay for their prescriptions,” Klobuchar said. “Our bipartisan legislation would put an end to pharmaceutical company tactics that delay or prevent lower-cost competition while protecting patient safety and saving Americans consumers billions of dollars.”
"Nearly everyone has a story about sticker shock at the pharmacy counter or anger at learning the drug they need isn’t covered by their health insurance,” Lee said. “Unfortunately, complex regulatory environments are being abused by some firms to avoid competition and keep prices high. Our CREATES Act aims to curb such regulatory abuse and facilitate generic entry, thereby lowering prices and increasing access while maintaining safety levels.”
Feinstein said: “The rapidly rising cost of prescription drugs, particularly those for cancer and chronic diseases, places a huge financial burden on patients and families nationwide. Ensuring generic drugs can get to market is one way to address this problem. Our bill would help put a stop to the unfair practices that block generic drugs from the market by giving companies legal avenues to challenge them.”
"As seniors struggle to pay for prescription drugs, pharmaceutical companies are raising the cost of drugs and making huge profits off of our nation’s most vulnerable populations. Speeding the entry of affordable and safe generic drugs into the market is a national priority that will lower prices through increased competition," said Cicilline. "The CREATES Act is a vital step in achieving this goal. By ending regulatory evasion and manipulation of safety protections through a well-tailored and cost-saving remedy, the CREATES Act will increase the number of affordable generic choices for consumers in the prescription drug market."
Marino said: “The CREATES Act will lead to lower costs for patients by ensuring that they have access to safe and effective FDA approved generic medicines. It will also ensure consumer safety by maintaining safeguard features of the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) Program while closing regulatory loopholes that are used to keep prices artificially high.”
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the bill would result in a $3.3 billion net decrease in the federal deficit. Savings to consumers and private insurers likely would be far greater.
The legislation, a version of which was introduced in the House earlier this year, is strongly supported by the Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM), consumer groups including AARP, Consumers Union, and Public Citizen; the American College of Physicians; the American Hospital Association; the Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing; and America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP).
An outline of the CREATES Act can be found here, and text of legislation can be found here.
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Senator Lee Thanks President Trump for Beginning Monument Review
WASHINGTON – Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) issued the following statement Wednesday after President Trump signed an Executive Order directing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review every monument designation made pursuant to the Antiquities Act since 1996.
“I commend President Trump for beginning a review of past monument designations, and I’m confident that after that review some of them, including the recent Bears Ears designation, will be rescinded or altered to better conform with the original intention of the Antiquities Act,” Sen. Lee said.
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Lee Responds to FCC Announcement on Net Neutrality
WASHINGTON – Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) issued the following statement Wednesday after Federal Communications Chairman Ajit Pai announced the FCC will begin the rulemaking process to functionally repeal the agency’s 2015 Open Internet Order.
“Permissionless innovation, free of Washington bureaucrat interference, has been the cornerstone of the Internet’s vitality and growth. President Obama’s net neutrality scheme is a threat to Internet innovation and I commend Chairman Pai for taking this first step to removing the regulatory threat,” Sen. Lee said.
“I appreciate Chairman Pai’s transparency and candor, and look forward to working with him and my colleagues in Congress to craft lasting legislation that maintains an open and dynamic Internet free from government overreach," Sen. Lee continued.
Sen. Lee plans to introduce legislation permanently removing the FCC’s ability to issue net neutrality regulations soon.
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Sen. Lee Introduces Restoring Internet Freedom Act
WASHINGTON – Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the Restoring Internet Freedom Act Monday, a bill that would nullify the Federal Communications Commission’s 2015 Open Internet Order and prohibit the FCC from issuing a similar rule in the future. The bill is cosponsored by Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Rand Paul (R-KY), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Ben Sasse (R-NE), and James Inhofe (R-OK).
“Few areas of our economy have been as dynamic and innovative as the internet,” Sen. Lee said. “This is largely because the federal government has taken a hands-off approach that has allowed permissionless innovation to deliver unthinkable technological advances in such a short amount of time. But now this engine of growth is threatened by the Federal Communications Commission’s 2015 Open Internet Order, which would put federal bureaucrats in charge of engineering the Internet’s infrastructure. That is why I am introducing the Restoring Internet Freedom Act, which would nullify Open Internet Order and prohibit the FCC from issuing a similar rule in the future.”
"Two and a half years ago, I said that net neutrality was 'Obamacare for the Internet,’” said Sen. Cruz. "At the time, the Obama administration, in its typically deceptive manner, had conflated net neutrality — a worthy idea, as originally defined, to protect an open internet — with reclassifying the internet as a public utility under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, a burdensome, behemoth of a law that gives all sorts of authority to the government to regulate pricing and terms of service and stifle innovation online. My comments were intended to raise awareness of this unprecedented government power grab, which the Obama administration and its friends at the FCC were attempting to quietly accomplish. I am proud to work with my friend Mike Lee on the Restoring Internet Freedom Act, a bill that rolls back former President Obama's power grab, protects open internet principles, and recognizes the transformative effect that the internet has had on our lives, generating billions of dollars of new economic activity and millions of jobs, largely free of government’s heavy hand. We must preserve a free and open internet, and give stability to the companies and users operating within the internet ecosystem."
“This bill is another important step to roll back harmful Obama-era regulations that stifle innovation and delay broadband deployment in Wisconsin and throughout America,” Sen. Johnson said. “The FCC has taken encouraging steps to address this overreach, and the Restoring Internet Freedom Act would help ensure that the Internet remains open and free of heavy-handed federal regulations.”
“Putting a stop to the FCC and the Obama administration’s unauthorized power grab over the Internet is an important step toward ensuring continued technological innovation,” Sen. Paul said. "The Internet and web-based commerce have flourished over the past twenty years, spurring growth in the American economy. Getting big government and bureaucrats out of the way of that growth will benefit all Americans.”
“This legislation is a step in the right direction as Congress works to ensure internet regulation does not stifle innovation,” Sen. Inhofe said. I appreciate the steps FCC Chairman Pai has already taken to roll back the 2015 Order which undercut future investment by curbing innovation and creativity and I look forward to working with my colleagues to address this issue.”
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April 28, 2017
"to elevate the condition of men--to lift artificial weights from all shoulders, to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all, to afford all an unfettered start and a fair chance, in the race of life." --Abraham Lincoln
Chairman's Note: The First Step Towards Revoking Obama’s Land Grab
What is done by executive power can be undone by executive power.
President Obama began to learn that lesson this Wednesday when President Trump signed an executive order directing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to conduct a review of all Antiquities Act designations larger than 100,000 acres over the past 30 years.
Specifically, the executive order directs Secretary Zinke to consider “the requirements and original objectives of the Act, including the Act's requirement that reservations of land not exceed ‘the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected’” and whether “designated lands are appropriately classified under the Act as ‘historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, [or] other objects of historic or scientific interest.’"
This wording strongly suggests that President Obama’s lame duck decision to designate 1.35 million acres in San Juan County as a national monument will at least be significantly reduced and possibly entirely rescinded.
Some environmental activists may claim that President Trump does not have the power to shrink or revoke President Obama’s Antiquities Act designations, but these claims are ignorant of both history and the law.
For starters, as University of California Berkeley Law School professor John Yoo and Pacific Legal Foundation Executive Director John Gaziano detailed in a recent legal report, five presidents have significantly reduced four previous monument designations and no one has ever questioned the legality of those reductions.
Specifically, President Eisenhower reduced the Great Sand Dunes National Monument by 25 percent, President Truman reduced the Santa Rosa Island National Monument by 49 percent, Presidents Taft, Wilson, and Coolidge collectively reduced the Mount Olympus monument by 49 percent, and President Taft reduced the Navajo National Monument by 89 percent.
A current president’s power to alter a previous president’s flows from the text of the statute which authorizes the president “in his discretion, to declare by public proclamation… national monuments…. the limits of which in all cases shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected.”
As Yoo and Gaziano point out, “there is no temporal limit” on the requirement that a monument must be limited to “the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected” so all presidents must use their ongoing discretion as to whether every monument is the proper size.
Furthermore, what if a later president determines that an earlier president’s designation was so exceedingly beyond the “smallest area compatible with proper care ” that the entire designation was illegal? Yoo and Gaziano argue that the entire monument designation could be revoked.
Whatever Sec. Zinke does end up recommending to President Trump, and a preliminary report is due in 45 days on Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument, further executive action will only be the beginning of solving San Juan County’s public lands issues.
Congress will then need to pick up the Public Lands Initiative legislation that was working through the House before President Obama derailed the legislative process and pass a common sense solution that includes real input from local residents. Only through the legislation can local residents, including the Navajo, be given real power over their land use decisions.
Issue in Focus: Making the Internet Innovative Again
Americans love their mobile devices. They want to be able to watch, listen, and play any video whenever they want, wherever they want, and for as long as they want. And they don’t want to pay a fortune for the privilege to do so.
For most of the history of the Internet, companies have been free to find innovative new ways to meet America’s insatiable demand for data. But progressive activists have never been comfortable with the unregulated nature of the Internet. They have always wanted government bureaucrats to have more control over how the Internet is managed.
After President Obama installed like-minded progressives on the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC realized those progressive dreams when they introduced the agency's first “net neutrality” regulations, called the Open Internet Order of 2010.
Those regulations were immediately challenged in court, and the FCC lost that court battle in 2014. But in 2015 they issued a new “Open Internet Order” which had an immediate impact on the market.
That same year, T-Mobile introduced a “Binge On” plan which offered customers unlimited data on some video options including Netflix, HBO, and Hulu. While then-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler called the “Binge On” plan “innovative,” progressive activists thought the plan was a clear violation of the brand new net neutrality regulations and lobbied the FCC to kill the plan.
But before the FCC could act, T-Mobile ended Binge On and created a new plan called Uncarrier which allows customers to download all the data they want, but charges an extra $25 to upgrade the quality of video from 480p to HD quality.
Progressive activists went crazy again calling this new plan another violation of the FCC’s new net neutrality regulations.
Fortunately T-Mobile no longer has to worry about progressive activists dictating how they engineer their wireless system. This Wednesday new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced that he would be repealing the 2015 Open Internet Order.
“Going forward, we cannot stick with regulations from the Great Depression meant to micromanage Ma Bell,” Pai said. “Instead, we need rules that focus on growth and infrastructure investment, rules that expand high-speed Internet access everywhere and give Americans more online choice, faster speeds, and more innovation. “
While Pai’s move is a welcome reprieve from innovation-killing government regulation, a future Democratic president could easily reintroduce President Obama’s net neutrality rules.
That is why I will introduce the Restoring Internet Freedom Act next week, a bill that would nullify the Federal Communications Commission’s 2015 Open Internet Order and prohibit the FCC from issuing a similar rule in the future.
Congress should be the one setting telecommunications policy, not federal bureaucrats and I look forward to engaging in this debate in the months ahead.
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