{"id":20012,"date":"2021-09-17T12:03:48","date_gmt":"2021-09-17T19:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=20012"},"modified":"2021-09-17T12:03:50","modified_gmt":"2021-09-17T19:03:50","slug":"big-pharmas-democrats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2021\/09\/17\/big-pharmas-democrats\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Pharma\u2019s Democrats"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SEP 15, 2021\u00a0\u00a0ANDREW PEREZ<\/a>,\u00a0DAVID SIROTA<\/a> (dailyposter.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three House Dems working to kill drug price legislation raked in roughly $1.6 million from pharma donors \u2014 and the top aide for one of them is now a pharma lobbyist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Big
Democratic Reps. Scott Peters (Calif.), Kurt Schrader (Ore.), and Kathleen Rice (N.Y.).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The three conservative Democratic lawmakers threatening<\/a> to kill their party\u2019s drug pricing legislation have raked in roughly $1.6 million of<\/a> campaign<\/a> cash<\/a> from donors in the pharmaceutical and health products industries. One of the lawmakers is the House\u2019s single largest recipient<\/a> of pharmaceutical industry campaign cash this election cycle, and another lawmaker\u2019s immediate past chief of staff is now lobbying for drugmakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The threat<\/a> from Democratic Reps. Kurt Schrader (Ore.), Scott Peters (Calif.), and Kathleen Rice (N.Y.) comes just as the pharmaceutical industry\u2019s top lobbying group announced a seven-figure ad campaign<\/a> to vilify the Democratic legislation that aims to lower the cost of medicines for Americans now facing the world\u2019s highest prescription drug prices<\/a>.Tip Jar<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At issue is House Democrats\u2019 initiative to let Medicare use its bulk purchasing power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices. That power \u2014 which is used by other industrialized countries to protect their citizens from exorbitant prices \u2014 has been promised<\/a> by Democrats<\/a> for years, and party leaders<\/a> have been planning to include it as part of their sprawling $3.5 trillion infrastructure reconciliation effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday, Schrader, Peters and Rice helped vote<\/a> the measure down in the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, blocking the legislation before it could come to the House floor for a vote. Even if the bill were to ultimately make it to the floor through another committee \u2014 which remains a possibility \u2014 Democrats only have a four-seat majority that allows them to pass legislation, so they can\u2019t afford to lose any more votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI understand that the pharmaceutical industry owns the Republican Party and that no Republican voted for this bill, but there is no excuse for every Democrat not supporting it,\u201d said Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders after the vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trio of Big Pharma Democrats are jeopardizing a plan based on H.R. 3<\/a>, the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act. The Congressional Budget Office has said<\/a> the drug pricing legislation, named for the late Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, would save the government $456 billion and<\/a> \u201creduce prices by 57 percent to 75 percent, relative to current prices\u201d for various medicines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The measure would direct<\/a> federal health regulators to negotiate prices of 25 high-priced drugs in the first year of implementation and 50 drugs in subsequent years, and the new negotiated prices would be available to both Medicare and private insurers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polls<\/a> show<\/a> that the idea of allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices is wildly popular \u2014 to the point where swing-state<\/a> and swing-district<\/a> Democrats, and even former President Donald Trump<\/a>, have expressed support for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Money Went In, Favors Are Coming Out<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Schrader<\/a> and Peters<\/a> are among the two biggest recent Democratic recipients of pharmaceutical industry donations, according to OpenSecrets. The pharmaceutical and health products industries are collectively the second biggest donor to both lawmakers over the course of their careers, giving them almost $1.5 million in total. Peters is currently the House\u2019s top recipient<\/a> of pharmaceutical industry donations in the 2022 election cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peters and his family were worth an estimated $60 million in 2018, making him one of the wealthiest<\/a> lawmakers in Congress, according to OpenSecrets. His wife is the president and CEO of Cameron Holdings, an investment firm whose portfolio company<\/a> provides<\/a> manufacturing and packaging for pharmaceutical companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schrader\u2019s net worth, meanwhile, was pegged at nearly $8 million<\/a>. The Oregonian<\/em><\/a> reported in 2008 that he received \u201ca quite large inheritance\u201d from his grandfather who was \u201cvice president and director of biochemical research and development at Pfizer\u201d \u2014 the drugmaker whose political action committee is now Schrader\u2019s third largest career donor<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The congressmen on Tuesday offered<\/a> their own drug pricing proposal, which would only allow Medicare to negotiate prices under limited conditions<\/a>, such as when a company no longer has exclusive marketing rights on an older drug but there are no competitors. That proposal was also backed by Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy (Fla.), the co-chair of the conservative Blue Dog Coalition, who is the House’s fifth<\/a> largest recipient of donations from the pharmaceutical and health products industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, Peters\u2019 campaign saw a surge in donations<\/a> from pharmaceutical company executives after he organized a letter<\/a> with nine other Democratic lawmakers informing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., that they opposed H.R. 3. Schrader and Rice co-signed the letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s worth noting that Peters, Schrader, and Rice all voted<\/a> in favor of H.R. 3 in the previous Congress. Politico <\/em>wrote in May<\/a> that Peters \u201csaid he cast that vote knowing it had no chance of becoming law at the time. He said he supported it only to \u2018start a conversation about lowering the cost of prescription drugs.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rice, Schrader and Peters have seats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is writing the party\u2019s prescription drug plan, and they used those positions to help block the measure there on Wednesday, preventing it from moving to the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last December, House Democrats\u2019 steering committee voted<\/a> to put Rice on the Energy and Commerce panel instead of<\/a> progressive New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, Rice explained<\/a> that she opposes the drug pricing measure because \u201cI do not support advancing policies that are not fiscally responsible and jeopardize the bill\u2019s final passage.\u201dGive a Gift Subscription<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top Aide Now A Pharma Lobbyist<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Schrader\u2019s longtime top aide, Paul Gage, left the congressman\u2019s office earlier this year, according to Legistorm<\/a>, and quickly started lobbying for Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the powerful Washington drug lobby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gage has been<\/a> lobbying<\/a> Congress on drug pricing issues and H.R. 3, according to ethics records. PhRMA raised more than $500 million<\/a> in 2019, and the organization is one of the top lobbying spenders<\/a> in D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday, PhRMA announced<\/a> it\u2019s launching an ad campaign against House Democrats\u2019 drug pricing efforts. \u201cPoliticians say they want to negotiate medicine prices in Medicare,\u201d one ad warns. \u201cBut make no mistake: What politicians mean is they’ll decide which medicines you can and can’t get.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Blue Dog Coalition\u2019s political action committee has been making monthly payments<\/a> to a consulting firm<\/a> led by the coalition\u2019s former communications director, Kristen Hawn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawn is also a partner at the bipartisan public affairs firm ROKK Solutions, which has worked<\/a> for PhRMA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CORRECTION: An initial version of this story had a typo, saying the three Democrats accepted roughly $1.8 million in donations from the pharmaceutical and health products industries, rather than roughly $1.6 million in donations from those industries. This story has been updated to correct that typo.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SEP 15, 2021\u00a0\u00a0ANDREW PEREZ,\u00a0DAVID SIROTA (dailyposter.com) Three House Dems working to kill drug price legislation raked in roughly $1.6 million from pharma donors \u2014 and the top aide for one of them is now a pharma lobbyist. The three conservative Democratic lawmakers threatening to kill their party\u2019s drug pricing legislation have raked… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20012"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20012"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20013,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20012\/revisions\/20013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}