Statement on “No” Vote for Today’s Domestic Appropriations Bill
***Press Release***
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 17, 2019 | Contact: Kate Stotesbery 202-225-4865 |
Statement on "No" Vote for Today's Domestic Appropriations Bill
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, released the following statement about his "no" vote on today's domestic appropriations bill:
"At the last minute, $427 billion in unpaid-for tax breaks were added to this bill, which was supposed to fund vital health needs. This measure not only weakens the financial underpinnings of the Affordable Care Act, but it includes provisions solely benefitting special interests such as insurance, coal, race horses, and racetracks. With Trump running deficits of $1 trillion annually, we can ill afford to make our fiscal situation even less healthy. While the insurance and medical device industries received permanent benefits, community health centers were extended for a mere five months. Instead of focusing on the working families left out of the Republican tax law, this bill lavishes more tax breaks on some of the same companies that had already reaped so much of the benefit.
Nothing was included to protect patients from being burdened by surprise medical bills, an issue on which I first offered legislation in 2015. Nothing was included to protect seniors from a big spike in their out-of-pocket medication costs when the cap for catastrophic Medicare drug coverage increases by 25% in January. And instead of lowering prescription drug prices, this bill allows Big Pharma to extend their monopolies on hundreds of additional medications by redefining them as biologics."
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