Ranking Member Cole Prepared Hearing Remarks on H.R. 3617 and H.R. 6833

Hearing

As prepared for delivery and submitted for the record during today's hearing:

Today's hearing is on two items. The first I'll discuss is H.R. 3617, the MORE Act, which calls for decriminalizing marijuana and removing it from the Drug Enforcement Agency's drug schedules. The bill also provides for expungement of non-violent, marijuana-related criminal offenses and resentencing for currently incarcerated offenders.

While there may be bipartisan will for marijuana policy reform, this bill misses the mark. Taking such a consequential step as fully legalizing marijuana is deeply concerning and is not something I can support. Furthermore, putting forward such a dramatically flawed bill makes partisan an issue that could potentially be bipartisan.

As this committee is well aware, marijuana is often a gateway drug, leading to the use of harder drugs such as heroin or cocaine. Easing access to marijuana, even while regulating and taxing its purchase, will do nothing to alleviate that concern, and it may in fact ultimately accelerate damage to society. While there is space for bipartisan solutions to this problem, putting forward legislation in a take it or leave it fashion does not achieve that goal.

I am also concerned that there has been little to no legislative process on this issue. When we reviewed this legislation at the end of the 116th Congress, there had not yet been any form of legislative hearing on this topic. At the time, I strongly encouraged the Judiciary Committee to conduct a legislative hearing with FDA, NIH, EPA and the Surgeon General on the public safety guardrails with respect to descheduling marijuana. And yet, as of today, no such hearing has been held. The lack of a real legislative process on a bill that is this consequential is discouraging.

A better approach at the federal level would be to provide appropriate guidance and regulations for states that have chosen to decriminalize marijuana or make it available for medical use. Thirty-seven states, including my home state of Oklahoma, allow for medical use of cannabis products, and 18 states allow for recreational use. It would be a more productive use of everyone's time to bring up a bill like the STATES Reform Act, which has significant Republican support and would allow states to make decisions about marijuana without federal interference with state laws. We could also bring up my friend Ed Perlmutter's SAFE Banking Act, which would address access to banking services for cannabis-related businesses. These bills would be a more measured and safer approach toward marijuana than the blanket descheduling and decriminalization that we are considering today, particularly given the lack of a legislative process to guide us in our deliberations.

Although I have deep concerns about today's measure, I look forward to hearing testimony from our witnesses today.

Our second item is H.R. 6833, the Affordable Insulin Now Act, which would require all commercial health insurance plans and Medicare Part D plans to cap the consumer out-of-pocket cost for 30 days of insulin at $35.

The steadily rising cost of insulin has been a source of deep concern for millions of Americans who rely upon it every single day to manage their condition. Too many people, both in my home state of Oklahoma and across the country, have struggled to pay for their medicines such as insulin. And many have had to make the heartbreaking choice between rationing their medication or forgoing paying other bills to pay for their required treatments.

There is bipartisan agreement that this is a real problem that requires a real solution. Certainly, the millions of Americans affected by diabetes would agree. And yet insulin is not the only drug that has seen steep price increases in recent years. In my view, we would be better served to address this problem through a bipartisan comprehensive bill, like H.R. 19, that would lower the prices of all drugs. Such an approach would provide real relief to consumers and ensure real solutions to high drug prices across the board.

I understand that my colleagues on the Energy and Commerce Committee have additional concerns with this legislation, which I look forward to hearing today. As we continue our work, I am hopeful that Congress will find a bipartisan path forward and that we will work together to lower drug prices for all Americans.

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