Transcript of Speaker Pelosi’s Remarks at Press Event to Unveil Findings of Oversight Committee Investigation into Pharmaceutical Industry

Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined Chairwoman Maloney, Members of Congress and advocates to unveil findings of the Oversight Committee's three-year investigation into pharmaceutical pricing and business practices and highlight the need to pass the Build Back Better Act to lower the cost of prescription drugs. Below are the Speaker's remarks:

Speaker Pelosi. We've been working together for a very long time. Thank you, Carolyn Maloney, for your great leadership: bringing us together, not only here, but following the work of Elijah Cummings, for whom this room and this bill – part of some of these bills have been named. He was a great champion For The People, For The Children.

This issue is one that has been – this is a kitchen table issue for the American people. I want to – it's an honor to join you, Madam Chair, to join Jan Schakowsky, who has been relentless on this issue, Mark DeSaulnier, coming over from his committee jurisdiction of transportation, education and the rest. And, I know Frank Pallone will be joining us shortly and thank him for his leadership. But so many Members have been involved in this for a long time.

Let me just place this a little bit in time, as I acknowledge Brad Woodhouse, and Protect Our Care and how much the cost of prescription drugs has been part of lowering the cost of health care. And Jen Taylor from Families USA, Families USA – they've helped us pass the Affordable Care Act and save the Affordable Care Act. And David Mitchell, Patients For Affordable Drugs, thank you for your leadership and your organization's leadership as well.

Let me just put this into perspective, historically. When – in 2005, in 2006, when Democrats were running to take back the House, one of our primary issues was to lower the cost of prescription drugs. We had a New Direction for America: ‘Six for '06,' six bills that we would pass in the first 100 hours of the new Congress – hours, not days. We did, in the House – five of them became law, one of them did not survive, needing the 60 votes in the Senate: enabling the Secretary of HHS to negotiate for lower drug prices. This fight has been going on since the Medicare Part D legislation, which gave away the store to Pharma, and they got used to having the store to themselves.

So, the research that has been done here, the documentation of how dollars are spent, in contrast to the statements that are made – ‘if we do this, if the Secretary can negotiate for lower prices for America's working families, it's going to have an impact on innovation' – not true. We're spending billions of dollars on innovation. Just look at our appropriations bill that we're hoping to pass in the next few weeks, and it's one of the biggest increases in innovation at the National Institutes of Health, continuing that over and over again. The biblical power to cure, that basic – scientific medical research, so important to what the private sector does in their important role.

But, what we see on TV are these ads. So, they spend so much money, Pharma does, on ads on TV so everybody wants what they saw on TV – and that increases the cost to the taxpayer and the consumer, to the benefit of Pharma. And what they are doing, in terms of what you've released in the previous – in the course of these reports, in terms of their own buybacks and CEO pay and Pharma aggrandizement, in terms of money, is stunning. And yet, they have the nerve to say: ‘But for the better price for the American consumer, we would be able to do more innovation.'

God bless them for their innovation. God bless science for being, again, the biblical power of cure. But let's not take it out on America's working families. I always tell the story – what you hear out there in the public, one of the stories that was so moving to me was that a man came up to me in Michigan and was crying. He was crying. A grown man crying because he could not pay the prescription drug bills for his wife who was bedridden with an illness. He said, ‘I fear I can't keep my promise, "in sickness and in health," to care for her because of the cost of prescription drugs.'

And, we all know the exploitation of the American consumer, preying on Medicare, preying on the consumer, while giving lower prices overseas. And, we are paying three, four times as much – consumers in our country. This is outrageous. But, you know what? They are brazen. And you know, I know them, I communicate with them and make my views known to them about their brazenness.

In some states, they are trying to – some similar things to lower the cost of drugs in their states, and they are fortifying with lobbyists and lawyers and everything to just get everybody in their camp, PR and all the rest, so they can continue to prey on Medicare and prey on consumers.

So this report is so very important because it is a documentation of what has happened. It's a presentation on how the highest cost drugs lose Medicare savings. And, it's an opportunity cost for those savings to go to help other provisions of Medicare.

So, I'm very happy that in Build Back Better we have historic legislation. It's the most historic in a century for families, workers, seniors and for all Americans in many respects. But, we look forward, forward to a vote soon in the Senate. Hopefully very soon, so that the President's vision for the future can be fulfilled. And, a very important part of it is not what happens at corporate America's corporate tables, but what happens at America's kitchen tables. This is an issue of preeminence across our country. I gave you one example. I can give you many more.

And so, we have a very special VIP guest here today named, Mindy Salango, who will tell her story. And that's more eloquent than anything that we could say, document or provisions we can say in bills. So, I look forward to, for all of us to hear her story.

But, this is a situation where now we can end Pharma's outrageous price hikes. That's what we have to do. Finally give Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices, that's in the bill. Not as robust as I would have liked but nonetheless in the bill. Capping annual cost at the pharmacy at $2000, not a penny more. And, ensuring that no one with diabetes pays more than $35 a month for insulin. All these priorities for us, but especially for the President of the United States.

So, together we look forward to making a big difference in the lives of America's families and a big difference in the business model, the business model of these companies to just eke out with greed, the biggest possible profits, at the expense of America's working families who have to pay more. At the expense of the taxpayer, who has to pay more for benefits in terms of Medicare and the rest. But, we will just, just be relentless. Pharma, we will be relentlessly on your case, For The People.

Now, I'm pleased – do I yield back to the Chair? Madam Chair? Let us thank the Chair for her doggedness – likeable dog – on the heel of Pharma. She is never going to give up on this. And for that, we are very grateful.

Thank you.