Sanders says fight is not over to strengthen social spending bill ahead of House vote

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said on Sunday that the work is not over to get some more progressive policies, including allowing the government to negotiate lower prescription drug prices for seniors, into the Biden administration’s social spending bill before the House votes on the plan. 

“We are paying the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. The pharmaceutical industry has spent hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars to make certain that Americans pay ten times more for some drugs and the Canadians and the Mexicans, so that fight continues,” Sanders, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“We’re working today. We’re going to work tomorrow to strengthen that bill. It is outrageous that we continue to pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs,” Sanders added.

“This is not easy stuff. But what we are trying to do is put together the most consequential piece of legislation in the modern history of this country, which will transform the role of government in protecting the needs of working families,” the senator also said.

A leadership aide told The Hill that House Democrats hoped to pass both the social spending and bipartisan infrastructure bills as early as Tuesday.

Last week, Sanders said he was not prepared to support the much smaller $1.75 billion plan that the White House introduced.

“Before there is a vote in the House on the infrastructure bill, the members of the House have a right to know that 50 U.S. senators are supporting a strong reconciliation bill,” he said at the time.