WASHINGTON — A top Republican lawmaker on Wednesday hinted that the Senate stagnation of a bipartisan drug pricing bill has a high-profile culprit: President Trump.
The comments mark the second time in as many months that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has suggested Republican Party leadership must act more forcefully on the issue of drug pricing. While the White House has formally endorsed the bill Grassley authored with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Trump has not personally pushed it with nearly the same enthusiasm that he displayed for other GOP health care efforts, like the party’s failed attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2017.
“The White House is fully behind our bill, but we need the president speaking up more,” Grassley told a gathering of reporters. “It would be very helpful if the White House would facilitate conversations between Grassley and Wyden on the one hand, and the House of Representatives on the other hand.”
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