U.S. Representative Bill Flores (R-Texas) issued the following statements regarding the Energy and Commerce Committee’s consideration of H.R. 3, the Lower Drug Costs Now Act; and the House Democrat’s impeachment process:
H.R. 3
“There is no question that Americans are paying too much for prescription drugs. There are steps Congress can take to help our seniors and hardworking families, yet, Speaker Pelosi continues to ignore calls for a bipartisan solution to address rising costs. Instead, Speaker Pelosi is working to appease the most extreme socialist members of her party and radical special interest groups. In doing so, Democrats are putting politics over progress by jamming a half-baked bill through the committee process and denying members the opportunity to further examine or work across the aisle to improve the bill.
“The Energy and Commerce Committee has a well-established history of working in a bipartisan manner to pass important legislation, but H.R. 3 falls woefully short of that standard – passing out of committee along party lines. Pelosi’s partisan prescription drug bill puts forth a socialist, government-controlled approach to address prescription drug costs. It allows the government, through an unconstitutional taking, to nationalize the prescription drug industry by imposing draconian taxes on drug manufacturers. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, this legislation would have a chilling effect on vital life-saving medical innovation, driving both investment and jobs overseas to places like China, while potentially compromising the oversight and safety of prescription drugs.
“Rather than continuing to push this socialist prescription drug bill through the House, that will be dead-on-arrival in the Senate, House Democrats should work with Republicans, as they have previously done, on bipartisan solutions that promote competition, lower out-of-pockets costs for patients and increase transparency and accountability in drug pricing.”
Impeachment Process
“This week, the House reconvened after a two-week district work period. During the work period, the consistent message that I heard from hardworking Texans was that they want to see the House work on the priorities that they care about most – securing our border, fixing our broken immigration system, approving the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, addressing prescription drug prices, improving our health care system and continuing America’s energy dominance in an environmentally responsible manner. Unfortunately, Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats had other plans. They spent the two-week work period in Washington behind closed doors playing political games with their continued attacks on the President through their sham impeachment process. Instead of voting to authorize an impeachment inquiry, Democrats continue to bring in their cherry-picked witnesses and question them behind closed doors, away from the view of the American public.
“While this whole process reeks of nontransparent partisanship, the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam Schiff, took his actions to another level when he lied to the American people about his committee not having contact with the whistleblower. Additionally, Representative Schiff fabricated a story in which he deliberately mischaracterized events that happened and is leaking snippets of information to fit the Democrat’s false impeachment narrative. Given that Representative Schiff continues to mislead the American people, I joined my fellow colleagues in sponsoring a resolution to condemn and censure him.
“If House Democrats are so confident in their move to impeach, they should be doing so in an open and transparent manner that ensures that the minority party has equal rights and privileges to engage and participate in all aspects of the process so that the American people know the true facts. Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy recently requested that Speaker Pelosi suspend the impeachment inquiry until she answered questions regarding the establishment of equitable rules and procedures – something that has been done in previous impeachment inquiries. Speaker Pelosi has continued to operate in the dark and refused to answer Leader McCarthy’s line of questioning about establishing fair and transparent procedures. This process is damaging to the American people and is an afront to fundamental fairness. The Speaker’s actions have been carried out in an illegitimate way that violates basic fairness and lacks due process.
“This week, Speaker Pelosi announced that she will not bring legislation to establish guidelines for this impeachment process to the House floor for a vote. Instead, House Democrats are choosing to hide facts from the American people and continue this opaque impeachment process. In doing so, House Democrats are overlooking the opportunities the American people have given us to help them by working in a bipartisan manner on the issues that hardworking American families care about most. America deserves better than the anti-Trump focused tunnel vision the radical left demands.”
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