WASHINGTON — Five of the most vulnerable Democrats in the Senate on Tuesday publicly renewed their push to let Medicare negotiate lower drug prices — one of the first signals from the new Congress that key Democrats hope to campaign again on the popular policy in the 2022 midterm elections.
Every lawmaker has leverage in the narrowly divided Senate, but this group will especially have leadership’s ear as they fight to hold onto their seats to preserve Democrats’ perilous majority in the 2022 midterm elections. Three of the lawmakers are on the Finance Committee, which will be responsible for crafting the drug pricing policy that will be included in Democrats’ behemoth budget bill.
The lawmakers — Sens. Michael Bennet (Colo.), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), Mark Kelly (Ariz.), Raphael Warnock (Ga.), and Maggie Hassan (N.H.), all of whom are up for reelection next year — filed the amendment as part of the arduous budget process Democrats are using to pass President Biden’s proposals to expand the social safety net. It was more a signal than anything else; the amendment did not come up for a vote before the legislation passed.
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