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Friday Alert November 16, 2007
Alliance for Retired Americans
888 16th Street, N.W. - Washington DC, 20006 - (202)
974-8222 - www.retiredamericans.or
Bush Still Giving Congress
Fits With Vetoes That Deny Health Care
As the
week ended, Congress was still trying to deal with vetoes by
President Bush on two major health care bills. According
to The New York Times, congressional efforts to expand
the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) have run
into a new roadblock: eight Democratic senators say they cannot
support any bill if their states lose money for the coverage of
parents. A compromise bill must "protect state flexibility
to cover parents," the senators said in a letter to Speaker
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the House majority
leader, Steny Hoyer (D-MD). Senators from
five states that together cover more than 250,000 parents signed
the letter. The senators are: Amy
Klobuchar (MN), Frank Lautenberg (NJ),
Robert Menendez (NJ), Jeff
Bingaman (NM), Jack Reed (RI),
Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) Russ
Feingold (WI), and Herb Kohl
(WI). By revising the bill to address Republican concerns,
the Democratic leaders hope to pick up enough votes to override
another veto. Speaker Pelosi and Rep. Hoyer said they were
still firmly committed to covering 10 million children. On
Thursday, the House did not have the two-thirds majority
required to override a presidential veto of a $606 billion
fiscal year 2008 Labor - Health and Human Services - Education
appropriations bill, H.R. 3043. The vote was 277-141, with
the roll call results here (http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll1122.xml).
The bill would reject the President's cuts in health care and
home heating assistance, while ensuring health care for 1.2
million more Americans through community health centers and
grants to find cures for stroke, diabetes, and Alzheimers'
disease. One possible outcome for appropriations is a
stalemate for the remainder of Mr. Bush's 14 months in office,
with the government operating under a series of continuing
resolutions that fund most Cabinet departments and federal
agencies at current levels. "The President seems obsessed
with blocking health care, like it's some insidious invader,"
said George J. Kourpias, President of the
Alliance.
Senators Dorgan, Snowe Look
into Safety of Drugs Made in India and
China
Last week, Senators Byron
Dorgan (D-ND) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
sent a letter to the CEOs of the ten largest pharmaceutical
firms, requesting information on the extent to which those firms
are outsourcing drug manufacturing to suppliers in foreign
nations, as well as the level of safety oversight over that
production. The pharmaceutical industry has opposed
bipartisan drug importation legislation by claiming that
consumers would be placed at risk by such imports, despite the
abundant evidence to the contrary. Yet, according to a
report in The Washington Post, more than 40 percent of
the active ingredients in pharmaceutical products sold in the
U.S. now originate in China and India - countries with
inadequate regulatory regimes to ensure these ingredients are of
high quality and produced under Good Manufacturing
Practices. The letter was written after the Government
Accountability Office (GAO) reported recently that only 7% of
foreign plants are inspected by the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) annually. The GAO also determined that the FDA does
not know how many foreign facilities are actually making
products for the U.S. market. In their letter, the two
senators asked for information including which countries produce
the companies' drugs or ingredients for use in the U.S., and
when the last time was that each of the facilities in those
countries was inspected. A timely response was
requested.
Big Drug Companies Pay to
Keep Less Expensive Generics Off the
Market
As part of their nearly $40 million
lobbying campaign, big drug company lobbyists have stalled
legislation that would make cheaper generic drugs available more
quickly, costing the American public billions of dollars.
According to a recent review by the Associated Press,
the legislation introduced by Sen. Herb Kohl
(D-WI) would have prohibited most "reverse payments,"
settlements in which generic drug manufacturers are paid by
name-brand pharmaceutical companies to delay introducing the
alternative. The Generic Pharmaceutical Association notes
that generics are 30% to 80% less expensive than the
originals. A bill to end these settlements has been
offered by Sen. Kohl twice, with the "Preserve Access to
Affordable Generics Act," S. 316, waiting in committee. A
similar bill in the House of Representatives - H.R. 1432,
introduced by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) - is
also waiting in committee, and none of the legislation has ever
been brought to a vote. At the same time, at least a dozen
drug companies and their trade associations spent $38.8 million
to lobby issues including that legislation from July 1, 2006,
through June 30, 2007. "Congress has a responsibility to
protect the Americans people, not the big drug companies," said
Ruben Burks, Secretary-Treasurer of the
Alliance. "There is no reason retirees should have to wait
years for affordable generic drugs when they are available
today."
Florida Alliance Sues to
Protect Citizens' Right to Demonstrate
On
Thursday, Florida Alliance for Retired Americans (FLARA)
President Tony Fransetta and South Florida
AFL-CIO President Fred Frost gathered with
dozens of fired-up retirees, union members and activists at a
press conference in front of the main Miami-Dade County police
station. Together they announced a civil liberties lawsuit
stemming from a November, 2003 march against the Free Trade Area
of the Americas (FTAA). Jointly filed by FLARA and the
national AFL-CIO in the U.S. District Court for the Southern
District of Florida, Miami Division, the suit alleges Miami-Dade
County, four South Florida municipalities and several individual
police department members unconstitutionally violated the civil
liberties and First Amendment rights of thousands of peaceful
demonstrators who gathered in Miami to protest the FTAA's failed
policies. After the press conference, the activists served
the police chief's office with the papers for the lawsuit.
Major networks, television stations, and The Miami
Herald covered the event. "This fight is to preserve
the right to demonstrate across the country," said Mr.
Fransetta. Two months ago, the Florida Alliance won a
lawsuit against the city of Fort Lauderdale, preserving the use
of certain signs during protests.
Did You
Know...
The average age of people buying
long-term care insurance has fallen from 69 in 1995 to 58,
according to the American Association for Long-Term Care
Insurance (The Washington Post).
Due to the holiday schedule, the next Friday
Alert will be published on November 30, 2007. Happy
Thanksgiving!
Become part of a progressive grassroots movement!
Join the Alliance
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Alliance for Retired Americans 815 16th
St, NW Washington, DC 20006 www.retiredamericans.org
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