21st Century Cures Bill

Floor Speech

Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I am delighted to join my colleagues from Massachusetts and Illinois to express strong objections to the 21st Century Cures Act, a bill that is being considered in the House today and will be considered in the Senate.

This bill proceeds to make effective $6.3 billion in cuts to programs while laying out a vision of what might possibly be spent in the future to assist in medical research. This is very much an imbalance. Real cuts--and as I will point out, those cuts hit things that matter with a promise of some of future possible action. We have seen these promises made and broken time and time and time again in this Chamber. If you are going to make a real commitment, then why isn't the real commitment in this bill?

I ask my colleagues from across the aisle: Why isn't the real commitment to these programs in this bill? Why isn't the spending in this bill? Why isn't the spending on precision medicine that is promised to be considered in the future in this bill? Why isn't the funding for the Cancer Moonshot promised to be considered at some point in the future actually in this bill? Why isn't the program to help address an understanding of and pursue cures for Alzheimer's, which is actually just a promise to be considered in the future--why isn't that actually in this bill? Why isn't the work promised to be considered in the future for adult stem cell research, which could have application to multiple cures and multiple diseases, actually in this bill? Well, I will tell you what is in this bill. What is in this bill is a provision that loosens the rules governing how companies market their drugs and the anti-fraud laws that go along with them--headache pills being advertised on television as a cure for the common cold and hair loss, perhaps. This is just what Big Pharma wants: freedom, freedom to mislead consumers about what drugs actually have been proven to do.

I will tell you what else is in this bill. It allows people to sell untested treatments and drugs without final FDA approval that has demonstrated the treatments are safe. Two big factors deregulating responsible provisions for Big Pharma are in this bill. But all of those rainbows, all those stars promised--those are for future consideration, to dress up special interest provisions for Big Pharma.

I will tell you what else is in this bill. There are special interest provisions for Big Tobacco, taking away $3.5 billion in prevention funds from the public health fund, $3.5 billion real dollars in prevention. The tobacco companies hate prevention programs because they make their money from addicts. Their goal in life is to get people addicted. This prevention fund is to prevent people from getting addicted. As you ponder all the diseases that stem from the use of tobacco--cancer of the lungs, cancer of the esophagus, heart disease in one form or another, all kinds of forms of decimation due to the daily inhaling of these toxins--that is what the tobacco industry thrives on, and they thrive on it from addiction.

Here we have a fund designed to help people avoid the addiction that takes away from their quality of life, often for decades of their time on our beautiful, blue-green planet, and, instead, encourages a process through which people will not only suffer personally but have massive medical bills, driving up the cost of health care in America for everyone, driving up the cost of insurance for everyone in America.

Since its launch in 2012, the Tips campaign has helped more than 400,000 smokers quit for good. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it saved 50,000 lives. At a cost of less than $400 for each year of life saved, in public health circles it is considered a best buy, dollars well spent that improve the quality of thousands of people's lives and reduce costs in the health care system.
That is a win-win.

But what is in this bill? An assault on that win-win to help the tobacco companies get more addicts.
The chronic diseases and unhealthy behaviors the prevention fund is intended to address impose tremendous costs. Tobacco use alone costs about $170 billion a year. Last year in health care expenses, more than 60 percent of it was paid by taxpayers through Medicare and Medicaid, so we all feel the impact of this.

What else gets cut? Oh, Medicare funding gets cut. If you are for taking apart the preeminent health care system so that our seniors can retire without the stress of worrying about access to health care, then vote for this bill. This is an assault on Medicare--big favors for Big Pharma, big favors for Big Tobacco, and an assault on Medicare.

It doesn't trim some Medicare programs that maybe are not as effective as others and help the others be stronger, more effective. No, it just takes away from Medicare.

Those are the things that are in this act, but what is not in this act? The mine workers protection act championed by my colleague from West Virginia, Senator Manchin. The mine workers protection act isn't in here, but the provisions expire for thousands of mine workers in the near future. There are 12,500 coal miners who will lose their health insurance on December 31. Another 10,000 will lose their health coverage next year and on into the future if we don't restore this program. If this bill is about health care, why isn't the coal miners' provision in here? I think it should be, but it is not.

What else isn't in here? Senator Wyden's provision to help children who are foster children gain access to programs to help them address mental health and addiction. That was in here yesterday. That would have been a positive talking point for this bill yesterday, but it was stripped out last night. This bill isn't ready, not just for prime time; it is not ready for consideration at all.

If we are going to cut real programs to fund other real programs such as the Moonshot and Alzheimer's research, strengthening NIH, then get it into this bill. Don't just put in the real cuts and then say there is some promise and an invitation to chase a rainbow down the road. Put it in the bill.

The things that are in here are powerful, deregulatory giveaways to Big Pharma and Big Tobacco, making the lives of our citizens worse, not better. That is why we should kill this bill.

Thank you.

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