Democrats Blast Republicans’ “Unconscionable” Failure to Act on National Drug Shortage Crisis

Last week, the Energy and Commerce Committee held a Health Subcommittee markup of 17 bills, including legislation to reauthorize the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA).

Unfortunately, Republicans refused to work in a bipartisan fashion and called up insufficient legislation that failed to include five commonsense proposals from E&C Democrats to help address the current drug shortage crisis Americans are facing.

During the markup, E&C Democrats called out the Republican majority for their unconscionable decision to cave to the extreme right-wing in their party and continue to ignore the drug shortage crisis. They also offered amendments to add the drug shortage provisions to the legislation, but those amendments were rejected by the Republican majority.

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) highlighted the drug shortage crisis' devastating toll on cancer patients nationwide as they struggle to access lifesaving treatment.

"The reauthorization of PAHPA is a clear opportunity to address the drug shortage crisis. I have to admit I'm disappointed and perplexed why we are not using this opportunity to strengthen our pharmaceutical supply chain and address the drug shortage crisis head-on."

—Rep. Dingell

Health Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA) reminded the majority of just how unprepared our nation was for the COVID-19 pandemic and questioned why the legislation put forward by Republicans to reauthorize PAHPA ignores lessons learned from the pandemic and underfunds our public health infrastructure.

"This bill in my view, and many professionals, ignores those lessons. This is essentially choosing unpreparedness."

—Ranking Member Eshoo

Full Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD) countered Republican claims that Democrats' proposals are outside the scope of PAHPA, citing the inclusion of FDA provisions since its inception, and called out Republicans for capitulating to the far-right members of their party.

"This bill before us, in my opinion, is an outlier. And I truly do not understand why my Republican colleagues are so afraid to have a conversation about how FDA can do more to address vulnerabilities in our supply chain…Maybe my Republican colleagues are beholden to the far right-wing of their party who vote against every public health measure that comes before them."

—Ranking Member Pallone

"It's really unconscionable, Mr. Chairman, that we as Members of this committee would not use the opportunity presented to us today by the PAHPA reauthorization process to address FDA policy as we've done historically in every other PAHPA reauthorization. And it's unconscionable that we would not take expedient action to combat drug shortage issues before they continue to worsen. It's something that we have to do—and we have to do it without delay."

—Rep. Sarbanes

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