Senators claim 60 votes for legislation allowing reimportation from Canada

[NewJerseyDem]

http://www.thehill.com/news/060104/drugbill.aspx

A bipartisan group of lawmakers claims it has lined up the 60 votes needed to get a prescription-drug reimportation bill through the Senate, which some say could lead the White House to change its position on the controversial issue.

The legislators are leaning on Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) to call up their bill — which would allow for the reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada and selected other countries — before the July 4 recess, as the window for significant legislative activity narrows.

“We have a very good time frame,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), after the group met with Frist in his Capitol office shortly before the Memorial Day recess. “We would like during the next work period to have the Senate consider” the bill. “We think we have the votes to pass it,” he said.

The Dorgan legislation has only 21 co-sponsors but has attracted bipartisan support. Sens. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) are among the bill’s co-sponsors.

[BabsSong]

1. Oh this is going to be interesting

The Drug companies own D.C., the Congress and the White House. They have slung money at these whores left and right. They won't take kindly to being sold out. I assume that if this happens, these corporations will immediately put the scews to the Canadians until the Canadians have to forbid the sale of drugs to Americans. And now that I just wrote that, I wonder if that's the plan all along?? Obviously, once this became legal, the entire elderly population for openers would mail order all their maintenance drugs from Canada and anyone else who has to take certain medications on a regular basis. These boys didn't lay out all that money to have this happen to them.

[TrogL]

14. Has that worked before?

put the scews to the Canadians until the Canadians

Canadians are notorious for getting upset over outside influence in Canadian affairs.

[Cyrano]

2. It's meaningless if it can't get through the House

DeLay and Hastert will probably do everything to block it. They're receiving too much from the pharmaceutical companies.

[TahitiNut]

4. If the leaderSHIT doesn't want it to come to the floor, it won't.

The House is the least egalitarian chamber.

[NewJerseyDem]

5. It has the votes in the House

Last year the House passed a reimportation bill but I think it may have died when the medicare bill came out of conference. Still, a majority in the House support reimportation and democrats can try to use a discharge petition to get it to the floor. It worked with campaign finance reform and it could work here but they probably don't have enough time in the next few months to get it to succeed.

[TahitiNut]

3. Interesting. DimSon's low approval means Repug Senators will deal.

I'd imagine the same goes in the House in districts with a margin of less than about 5%.

[underpants]

6. NPR was discussing this morning about Repubs asserting themselves

and distancing themselves from W. This, some say, is the time to stake out your spot in the hierarchy should W lose.

The discussion was focused more on a "pay as you go" bill that would require spending cuts to accompany any more tax cuts.

[Malva Zebrina]

7. It is sad what they have done to people re drugs and meds

especially the elders and seniors who have no income at all except for their SS.

In effect, they are killing them.

[Spazito]

8. What I can't figure out is...

why the hell congress doesn't deal with the problem directly at home instead of circuitously involving Canada. Instead of dealing with the pharmaceutical lobbyists and cutting off their control, they force them onto Canada. The US pharmaceutical companies are already restricting the amounts they will ship to Canada so how this solves, in any real way, the innate problem that exists in the US, the monopoly of the pharmaceuticals doesn't make sense to me.

[HuckleB]

10. Yes. YES. YEEEEEESSSSSS!

My sincere apologies for the apparent stupidity of my government at this point in time in our history. See below for my first rant on this topic.

You are very right in every respect.

Salud!

[HuckleB]

9. Oh brother.

So they voted to make it illegal for our own government to make better deals with drug companies on meds, but now we're going to re-import them from Canada?

Where's the bloody logic in that?

[SoCalDem]

11. None of this would even be necessary, if they would

put restrictions and regulations on the drug industry.. It's just pure greed.. The politicians need to STOP taking the money that drug lobbyists are shoving into their pants..

Drug companies should be about making medicine...NOT lobbying congress and bribing doctors..

If their drug is effective, doctors will prescribe it..

Drugs should NOT be advertised on TV either..

If every other place on earth can get affordable drugs, we should too.. We are being played by the industry, and the senate and congress needs to stop them...

reimportation will only lead to the drug companies creating "shortages" for Canada, and then they will have to raise prices to slow down the importation.. I doubt seriously that Canadians will be happy when prices increase for them, and they have trouble filling their prescriptions..

[Spazito]

12. Exactly!

This is simply a sop to get the seniors off their backs, both dem and repub politicians, without actually dealing with the innate problem. It is disgusting that no party in the US will deal with the pharmacutical companies, they would rather piggyback on our social programs until we are forced to raise prices here. It stinks!

[mulethree]

13. screwy, how about a drug anti-gouging bill?

Why ship drugs to Canada and back? Why rely on Canada to negotiate reasonable prices?

Just make a law that says the drug companies can't charge less for exported drugs than they do domestically. Kind of a reverse anti-dumping law. If they want to abide by their Canadian contracts then they will have to lower their U.S. Prices to match. If Germany were to negotiate a lower price than Canada has then thats the new max for U.S. Pricing.

Throw in some language that increases reciprocity in recognizing drugs approved in other jurisdictions - allowing drugs approved by Swiss or EU agencies and possibly Japan if their new process vets out.

[TrogL]

15. Canada does have drug manufacturing facilities