How Our State’s Members Of Congress Voted Last Week
Here’s how area senators voted on major issues in the week ending May 25. The House was in recess.
Take note of how the Senate voted on the Democratic and Republican plans for keeping some student loan interest rates low. I wrote a story a few weeks ago about U.S. Sen. Patty Murray’s visit to Clark County to learn more about student loan debt from local college students and educators.
(A little background about why I’m re-posting this roll call report can be found here.)
FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION: Voting 96 for and one against, the Senate on May 24 sent the House a bill (S 3187) that authorizes $6.4 billion, over five years, in Food and Drug Administration user fees on companies seeking approval of new brand-name and generic drugs, medical devices and biotechnology products. Additionally, the bill seeks to prevent shortages of lifesaving drugs and spur the development of new drugs for treating rare diseases and diseases that have become resistant to existing antibiotics. The bill also would stiffen penalties for drug counterfeiting, require studies and labeling standards to ensure the appropriate use of drugs for children, promote the development of pediatric medical devices and require the FDA to consider updated health warnings on tanning beds, among other provisions.
Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., cast the negative vote on grounds the bill does too little to lower the cost of drugs.
Robert Menendez, D-N.J., said the bill “is about more than drug safety (or) protecting patients. It is about improving the approval process to speed access to new lifesaving, life-enhancing drugs and devices and making sure the FDA is a partner in the production of safe and effective products.”
Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., criticized the bill for failing to penalize drug firms such as Abbott, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Merck and GlaxoSmithKline that have “paid billions of dollars in fines because they are ripping off Medicare, they are ripping off Medicaid and they are ripping off the American consumer. It is high time we said that fraud cannot be perpetrated as a business model by some of the major corporations in this country.”
A yes vote was to pass the bill.
Voting yes: Maria Cantwell, D, Patty Murray, D
Voting no: None
Not voting: None
DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS: Voting 77 for and 20 against, the Senate on May 24 tabled (killed) an amendment to S 3187 (above) requiring companies that market dietary supplements to register their products and product ingredients with the Food and Drug Administration and provide copies of their labels to the FDA. The amendment sought to bolster what is now minimal federal oversight of domestic and foreign firms that manufacture the 75,000 dietary supplements, from vitamins to energy drinks, sold in the U.S. The FDA classifies these products as food rather than pharmaceuticals.
Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said: “Anybody can abuse things. But if taken as directed, I, quite frankly, don’t know of any supplement out there that is dangerous. … If taken as directed, they help maintain people’s health and keep them healthy rather than being injurious to their health.”
Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said “when an ingredient turns out to be dangerous, we want to know if that ingredient is in more than one product and then go after it to protect American consumers. If we don’t know the product is in the United States and we don’t know what the ingredients are, how are we going to find that out? Wouldn’t we want that basic information?”
A yes vote was to kill the amendment.
Voting yes: Cantwell, Murray
Voting no: None
Not voting: None
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SALMON: Voting 46 for and 50 against, the Senate on May 24 refused to give a second federal agency authority over a pending application to market genetically engineered salmon as a safe food. The amendment to S 3187 (above) sought to slow the review by adding the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to the evaluation alongside the Food and Drug Administration. AquaBounty, the applicant, is seeking FDA approval to market a farm-raised Atlantic salmon infused with a gene from the chinook salmon that would speed the growth of the fish. Amendment backers said NOAA deserves a role in the matter because of concerns that the altered salmon could escape into the wild.
Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said: “This is a situation where people have a right to know about the quality of their fish, where it comes from, what it is made of. What I am asking is for the agency that has oversight of our fisheries to have a role in this process.”
Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said the amendment “would insert Congress in the scientific process of approving applications that we have entrusted to the FDA.”
A yes vote backed the amendment.
Voting yes: Cantwell, Murray
Voting no: None
Not voting: None
Rx DRUGS FROM CANADA: Voting 43 for and 54 against, the Senate on May 24 refused to allow American consumers to buy U.S.-made pharmaceuticals from Canadian vendors over the Internet, by mail order or in person. The amendment to S 3187 (above) applied to only individuals — not wholesalers — who seek to obtain Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs for personal use.
John McCain, R-Ariz., said: “This is an issue of fundamental fairness and decency and giving Americans the opportunity to have access to very important medication that in many cases is lifesaving. It has been blocked by one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, that of the pharmaceutical companies.”
Robert Menendez, D-N.J., said the amendment “puts Americans at risk, undermines FDA’s authority and would have a devastating ripple effect throughout our country’s drug supply by allowing untraceable foreign pharmaceuticals into our country.”
A yes vote backed the amendment.
Voting yes: None
Voting no: Cantwell, Murray
Not voting: None
DEMOCRATS’ STUDENT-LOAN PLAN: Voting 51 for and 43 against, the Senate on May 24 failed to reach 60 votes needed to pass a Democratic bill (S 2343) that would prevent interest rates on newly issued Stafford student loans from doubling to 6.8 percent on July 1. The bill would pay for itself by closing a specific tax loophole. The bill would cost the Treasury $5.9 billion in lost revenue, which Democrats would recoup by closing a loophole used by some owners of Subchapter S corporations to shield personal income from Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes. The closure would affect persons earning at least $200,000 annually whose S corporations have three or fewer shareholders.
John Reed, D-R.I., said Democrats would close “an egregious tax loophole that allows lobbyists, financiers … to create Subchapter S corporations to essentially avoid their payroll and Medicare taxes. I think that is an appropriate way to pay for this support for students’ education.”
Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said: “Our friends on the other side have their usual solution to almost any problem — let’s put some more taxes on small-business men and women in America during a time of the greatest recession we have had.”
A yes vote backed the Democratic plan.
Voting yes: Cantwell, Murray
Voting no: None
Not voting: None
GOP STUDENT-LOAN PLAN: Voting 34 for and 62 against, the Senate on May 24 rejected a Republican alternative to S 2343 (above) that would also keep Stafford student-loan interest at its present 3.4 percent level but offset the lost revenue by repealing the preventive-care section of the 2010 health law.
Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said that by taking funds from the health law rather than business owners, Republicans “have a better idea for how to pay for this bill.”
John Reed, D-R.I., said the prevention fund “is going to particularly help middle-income families who are struggling with medical bills, who are struggling to find insurance, the same families who are struggling to pay the cost of college for their children.”
A yes vote backed the Republican plan.
Voting yes: None
Voting no: Cantwell, Murray
Not voting: None
— Thomas Voting Reports, Inc.
