WASHINGTON, DC - Energy and Commerce Committee Republican Leader Greg Walden (R-OR) released the following statement after key elements of H.R. 19, the Lower Costs, More Cures Act, were introduced in the Senate :
“Not only is the Lower Costs, More Cures Act bipartisan, it is now also bicameral. With the Speaker’s partisan Fewer Cures Act dead on arrival in the Senate, and a President who has leaned in more than any other on the issue of lowering drug costs for the American people, the path forward is clear. The Speaker needs to drop the partisan games. There are bipartisan solutions at the ready. Let’s get this done for patients, seniors, and families," said Walden.
Earlier this month, Walden, Ways and Means Committee Republican Leader Kevin Brady (R-TX), Education and Labor Committee Republican Leader Virginia Foxx (R-NC), and Judiciary Committee Republican Leader Doug Collins (R-GA) introduced H.R. 19, the Lower Costs, More Cures Act, which would lower drug costs for Americans without limiting access to cures, and importantly, every provision in the bill is bipartisan.
The Lower Costs, More Cures Act was considered as an amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 3, with more Democrats voting in favor of this bipartisan solution than Republicans voting for the Speaker’s partisan scheme for fewer cures. Key provisions of H.R. 19 were also included in H.R. 1865, the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, which will soon be signed into law, while no provisions of H.R. 3 were included in this legislative package.
