WASHINGTON — Sen. Mitch McConnell says he didn’t push for a special provision tucked into the fiscal cliff deal — which he negotiated — that benefits one of his large corporate contributors, the pharmaceutical company Amgen Inc.
That’s according to the senator’s spokesman, Robert Steurer, when asked about the origins of a provision in the legislation that delays implementation of federal price controls on a group of kidney-dialysis drugs, including one made by Amgen.
The change will cost Medicare $500 million over two years.
“While the senator supported the final package to prevent a 28 percent cut in payments to physicians that would have jeopardized seniors’ access to health care, he did not push for this particular provision during negotiations,” Steurer said in an email.
“Senator McConnell reviewed the legislation before voting on it, but he did not know who would benefit, beyond the Medicare patients who would continue to be able to see their doctors because we prevented a catastrophic cut.”
Steurer did not answer repeated questions about when McConnell knew of the provision, but he defended it as a necessary part of efforts to help offset the cost of stopping a $30 billion scheduled reduction in Medicare payments to health care providers.
“Senator McConnell preferred and repeatedly proposed using President (Barack) Obama’s proposal to reduce the Medicare subsidy to higher income seniors who don’t need it, as the way to pay for it,” Steurer said. “The Senate Democrats rejected that. If they would have accepted this offer, none of the other offsets that were ultimately used would have been included.”
A New York Times report on the obscure provision, buried in the 157-page fiscal cliff deal without naming Amgen, touched off criticism of McConnell and fellow Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Max Baucus, D-Mont.
The story said top staffers with Hatch and Baucus backed the provision.
Now, a bipartisan group of House members is seeking to strip the deal of the provision, which they call a “$500 million giveaway.”
Aides to Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said through a spokeswoman that while he helped get the provision in the legislation, he did not intend to assist Amgen specifically.
Hatch spokeswoman Antonia Ferrier told the Salt Lake Tribune that the delay in price controls gives the government and health care providers time to prepare. Under the fiscal cliff bill, the price controls now take effect in 2015.
Reports criticized
Baucus’ Finance Committee spokesmen Sean Neary and Meaghan Smith said in a statement that news reports on the provision were “a complete mischaracterization of how and why this policy came together.”
“There was no earmark or provision for just one company. Plain and simple, the provision is smart policy for patients, providers and taxpayers,” the spokesmen said.
Amgen, based in Thousand Oaks, Calif., issued a statement saying the Times story distorts its actions and “fails to explain that this Medicare provision impacts all oral-only medications related to a patient’s kidney disease that are currently paid by Medicare Part D.”
“Dialysis patients are among our nation’s most chronically ill, and it is vitally important that their quality of care not be compromised,” the company said.
Amgen recently settled a major criminal and civil case with the federal Justice Department.
On Dec. 19 — as the so-called fiscal cliff neared — it pleaded guilty to, among other charges, illegally marketing one of its anti-anemia drugs for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Administration and offering illegal kickbacks to encourage the use of its products.
The company agreed to penalties totaling $762 million, which the Justice Department said was a record legal settlement for a biotechnology firm.
Last month, in a conference call on its fourth-quarter earnings, Amgen officials said worldwide sales of its kidney dialysis drug, Sensipar, grew 18 percent last year to $950 million.
A campaign contributor
Amgen also is a major campaign contributor to McConnell. The company’s employees and political action committee have given him $73,000 since 2007, according to Federal Election Commission records analyzed by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign giving and spending.
Amgen and its employees also have given $68,450 to Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and $57,400 to Hatch. Company employees also have donated more than $141,000 to Obama’s campaigns.
Amgen also employs 74 lobbyists in Washington, including former chiefs of staff to McConnell and Baucus, the Times reported.
Hunter Bates, a former McConnell chief of staff who runs his own lobbying firm in the capital, said he played no part in the Amgen provision in the fiscal cliff legislation.
“I did not ask Senator McConnell or his staff to insert this provision for Amgen, or for anyone else for that matter,” Bates said in an email.
Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group, said protecting Amgen’s drug should have been left out of the fiscal cliff deal.
“This type of smoke-filled, back-room shenanigans when the country’s fiscal and economic future is in the balance is exactly what fuels voter cynicism about Washington,” he said in an email.
Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., has introduced a bill to kill the Amgen provision. Initial co-sponsors include Reps. Richard Hanna, R-N.Y., Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., and Bruce Braley, D-Iowa.
Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3rd District, will likely support the proposal, said Stephen George, the Louisville congressman’s spokesman.
“This special interest provision should have stood on its own merits with an up or down vote,” Welch said. “It’s no wonder cockroaches and root canals are more popular than Congress.”
McConnell, through Steurer, declined to comment on Welch’s bill.
Written by: James R. Carroll
Original Publication URL: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130202/NEWS010605/302020064/Sen-Mitch-McConnell-says-he-didn-t-push-fiscal-cliff-provision-aiding-pharmaceutical-company-donated-his-campaign?gcheck=1
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