U.S. Senator Sanders working to get prescription drug price provision in
social spending bill
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[November 01, 2021]
By Kanishka Singh
(Reuters) -U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders was
working on getting a provision to lower prescription drug prices into
the $1.75 trillion social spending bill pending in the U.S. Congress
before a vote by the House of Representatives, with President Joe Biden
expressing optimism the bill will come up for a vote this week.
Biden was dealt a setback on Thursday as the House abandoned plans for a
vote on an infrastructure bill before his departure to Europe for an
international summit https://www.reuters.com/subjects/g20 with other
world leaders, with progressive Democrats seeking more time to consider
his call for a separate $1.75 trillion plan to address climate measures,
preschool and other social initiatives.
A proposal that would allow the U.S. government's Medicare health plan
for seniors to negotiate cheaper prices for prescription medicines was
not included in the social spending bill.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Nov/01/images/ads/current/beason_ag_sda_030614.png)
"I spent all of yesterday on the telephone ... We are continuing that
effort (to include the prescription drug price provision in the bill),"
Sanders told CNN in an interview on Sunday.
"It is outrageous that we continue to pay the highest prices in the
world for prescription drugs," added Sanders, who has championed that
cause for years.
In a press briefing in Rome on Sunday, the U.S. president, who left for
Europe for the G20 summit as top Democrats raced to close a deal on his
economic agenda, expressed optimism for an imminent vote on the social
spending bill.
The so-called Build Back Better framework, Biden said, "God willing,
(is) gonna be voted on as early as some time this coming week."
House Democrats have previously been signaling a vote could come as soon
as Tuesday.
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![](../images/110121PIX/news_m21.jpg)
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks to reporters after a
meeting with White House officials at the U.S. Capitol in
Washington, U.S., October 27, 2021. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File
Photo
![](../images/ads/current/centraldirect_lda_SPONSOR_2021.png)
Biden had sought to unite his fellow Democrats behind
the climate and social spending plan with personal appeals on
Thursday, and had pressed for a Thursday vote on the $1 trillion
infrastructure bill, another main plank of his domestic agenda.
He hoped a framework on the larger measure would convince
progressive House Democrats to support the infrastructure bill, but
their insistence that the two move together led House leaders to
abandon a planned vote.
The plan also did not include paid family leave or a tax on
billionaires, with some constituencies angered by the absence of key
Biden administration pledges from the bill.
The absence of paid family leave, Democrats have noted, left the
United States as the only rich country and one of the few nations in
the world that does not pay women during maternity leave.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg suggested on Sunday that the
fight for paid family leave was not over.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Nov/01/images/ads/current/safety-tip-daily-3.png)
"It's definitely something that we believe in, and so while it is
not in this framework, we're gonna keep fighting for it," Buttigieg
told ABC News in an interview.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in BengaluruAdditional reporting by
Trevor Hunnicut in WashingtonEditing by Bill Berkrot and Matthew
Lewis)
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