WASHINGTON—Sen. Elizabeth Warren has delivered a ferocious attack on congressional Republicans and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell over a medical research bill, putting fellow Democrats on the spot by pushing them to oppose a measure she said “is corrupt, and it is very, very dangerous.”
As Congress began the final stretch of its post-election session, Warren said the 996-page measure — a top priority for GOP leaders and backed by the biomedical industry — was riddled with provisions that she called “a bunch of special giveaways” to big pharmaceutical companies.
“They didn’t send us here to whimper, whine or grovel,” she said on the Senate floor about Democrats, using the populist rhetoric that has given her one of her party’s highest profiles. “They sent us here to say no to efforts to sell Congress to the highest bidder.”
All but taunting her own party, Warren, D-Mass., said, “Republicans will control this government, but they cannot hand that control over to big corporations unless Democrats roll over and allow them to do so.”
She said the research bill would “legalize fraud” by reducing the scientific evidence the government needs to approve existing drugs for new uses. She said it would “cover up bribery” by exempting medical companies from publicly reporting some payments they make to doctors.
Those provisions, she said, outweighed the “tiny fig leaf” of additional money the bill provides for biomedical research and combating abuse of addictive opioid drugs.
“I cannot vote for this bill. I will fight it because I know the difference between compromise and extortion,” said Warren, who some mention as a potential 2020 presidential contender.
