December 11, 2019 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S6967 awareness, and disseminate suicide pre- A bill (H.R. 2333) to direct the Comptroller costs continue to keep the American vention best practices. They are, lit- General of the United States to conduct an people up at night. A Kaiser Founda- erally, on the frontlines. assessment of the responsibilities, workload, tion poll in September found that the But, as you can imagine, this isn’t an and vacancy rates of Department of Veterans No. 1 health concern of the American Affairs suicide prevention coordinators, and easy job. This is a hard job, and there for other purposes. people is prescription drug pricing. A are reports that many of these preven- whopping 70 percent of those polled Thereupon, the Senate proceeded to tion coordinators throughout the VA think lowering prescription drug costs consider the bill. system are overworked and unable to The bill was ordered to a third read- should be a top priority—a top pri- keep up with their many responsibil- ing and was read the third time. ority—for Congress, making it the No. ities. What we are focused on here is The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill 1 item on our to-do list, but our friend that we want to make sure that the having been read the third time, the and colleague from New York, the mi- people who are helping our veterans question is, Shall the bill pass? nority leader, objected last time I of- are also taken care of and adequately Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I ask fered unanimous consent to take up resourced so that they can do the best for the yeas and nays. and pass a bill, which I will describe job in terms of helping our veterans. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a here momentarily. The VA must have a skilled and sufficient second? I hope, given the intervening time resourced workforce available, trained There appears to be a sufficient sec- and further reflection, he will not do so to recognize the warning signs of a vet- ond. today, and we can get this bill passed eran in crisis, and then be able to work The clerk will call the roll. and address this top priority of the with that veteran, hopefully success- Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is American people. fully, to connect them with lifesaving necessarily absent: the Senator from The good news is, Republicans and resources before it is too late. Kentucky (Mr. PAUL). Democrats both agree we need to do That is what the Support for Suicide Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the something about it. I have the honor of Prevention Coordinators Act requires. Senator from Colorado (Mr. BENNET), serving on both the Finance and Judi- That is what Senator TESTER and I the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. ciary Committees, where we have been worked on together to bring this out of BOOKER), the Senator from Vermont looking into this problem and some of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and, (Mr. SANDERS), and the Senator from the potential solutions. hopefully, if we get that right, then, it Massachusetts (Ms. WARREN) are There are pharmaceutical CEOs who has a positive impact on lessening this neccesarily absent. earn big bonuses as sales go up. I am high rate of suicide among our vet- The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there not opposed to them receiving com- erans. any other Senators in the Chamber de- pensation, but pharmacy benefit man- Senator TESTER mentioned what is in siring to vote? agers who negotiate backdoor rebates this, but it is not just additional re- The result was announced—yeas 95, that drive up out-of-pocket costs are a sources. It is also a comprehensive nays 0, as follows: problem because of the lack of trans- study by the GAO to make sure that [Rollcall Vote No. 390 Leg.] parency. our coordinators are resourced and YEAS—95 What I find very seriously concerning as well is anti-competitive behavior have a strategy to make sure they can Alexander Gillibrand Peters do their jobs most effectively to im- Baldwin Graham Portman when it comes to patents by drug man- pact our veterans. Barrasso Grassley Reed ufacturers. There are two practices, in It is an overall look at the VA sys- Blackburn Harris Risch particular, that the legislation I intend Blumenthal Hassan Roberts to offer a unanimous consent request tem of preventing veteran suicide with Blunt Hawley Romney a focus on these frontline coordinators Boozman Heinrich Rosen on would address. who do really, really important work. Braun Hirono Rounds One is called product hopping, which Brown Hoeven They are not always recognized. Rubio occurs when a company develops a re- Burr Hyde-Smith Sasse Cantwell Inhofe formulation of a product that is about For those who are doing that work, I Schatz Capito Isakson to lose exclusivity. Let me just stop a commend you, the Senate commends Schumer Cardin Johnson Scott (FL) moment and say that one of the ways you, and I think we are going to have Carper Jones Scott (SC) an overwhelming vote here in a couple Casey Kaine we protect the investment and the in- Shaheen minutes that will make sure of your Cassidy Kennedy tellectual property of American Collins King Shelby innovators is to give them exclusivity ability to do this really, really impor- Sinema Coons Klobuchar over the right to sell and license that tant job for our veterans and for our Cornyn Lankford Smith Nation and that you are going to be Cortez Masto Leahy Stabenow intellectual property, including drugs. able to do it better. Cotton Lee Sullivan That encourages people to make those Cramer Manchin Tester investments. In turn, it benefits the I applaud the leadership on both sides Crapo Markey Thune of the aisle for bringing this bill to the Cruz McConnell Tillis American people and the world, lit- floor, and I encourage my colleagues to Daines McSally Toomey erally, by creating new lifesaving vote in favor of this legislation. Let’s Duckworth Menendez Udall drugs, and that is a good thing. There Durbin Merkley Van Hollen is a period of exclusivity, and after get it on the President’s desk for his Enzi Moran Warner signature soon, and we can take an- Ernst Murkowski Whitehouse that expires—after that goes away— other step—another step—to make sure Feinstein Murphy Wicker then it opens that particular formula- Fischer Murray Wyden tion up to generic competition; mean- that we are taking care of our veterans Gardner Perdue Young and are trying to address this horribly ing, the price will almost certainly be tragic situation where far too many NOT VOTING—5 much lower and more affordable to the veterans in America are taking their Bennet Paul Warren American people. Booker Sanders own lives. This issue of product hopping is The bill (H.R. 2333) was passed. gamesmanship, as I will explain. First f f of all, before the drug loses exclusivity, LEGISLATIVE SESSION the manufacturer pulls the drug off the EXECUTIVE CALENDAR—Continued market. This is done not because the The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under new formula is more effective, but it SUPPORT FOR SUICIDE the previous order, the Senate will pro- will block generic competitors. PREVENTION COORDINATORS ACT ceed to executive session to resume The second issue is patent The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. consideration of the VanDyke nomina- thicketing, which occurs when an inno- LANKFORD). Under the previous order, tion. vator uses multiple, overlapping pat- the Senate will proceed to legislative The Senator from Texas. ents or patents with identical claims session to consider H.R. 2333, which the UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST—S. 1416 that make it nearly impossible for clerk will report. Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, as all competitors to enter the market. This The legislative clerk read as follows: America knows, climbing healthcare is nothing more and nothing less than VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:56 Dec 12, 2019 Jkt 099060 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G11DE6.015 S11DEPT1 dlhill on DSKBBY8HB2PROD with SENATE S6968 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE December 11, 2019 abuse of our patent system, and it is bill. His biggest criticism was it didn’t now he wants to get well with a bill coming at a high cost for patients who do enough, but as I pointed out then, if that is very small. rely on affordable drugs. you sit around waiting for the big bill Open up the floor to debate. We will Earlier this year, I introduced a bill to get passed, nothing happens in the debate all the big things that will real- with our friend and colleague from meantime, and it is a loss to the Amer- ly reduce prices, which people want, Connecticut, Senator BLUMENTHAL, ican people. and we will debate his bill. I object. who happens to be a Democrat, to ad- I think it is past time for us to take The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objec- dress these anti-competitive behaviors. up this legislation, get it passed, get it tion is heard. Our bill is called the Affordable Pre- signed by the President. Our friends in The Senator from Texas. scriptions for Patients Act, and it the House of Representatives have al- Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I point streamlines the litigation process by ready passed two bills, which, put to- out to my friend from New York, I am limiting the number of patents these gether, essentially reflect the same not the leader or the floor manager of companies can use in court. So compa- policy. legislation. That is up to Senator nies are spending less time in the I can’t think of any other reason for MCCONNELL, the Senator from Ken- courtroom and, hopefully, more time the Democratic leader to object than tucky.