WASHINGTON, DC –  Energy and Commerce Committee Republican Leader Greg Walden (R-OR) today slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's closely guarded, secretly negotiated bill that has yet to be shared with Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee, even as the committee has a markup of the bill scheduled for next Wednesday.

"Tragically, Republicans have been completely excluded from any of those discussions. Completely. It’s been done out of the Speaker’s office behind closed doors," said Walden during an Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing today. "I understand from the press clippings I’m seeing already it sounds like some Democrats are not happy, and some Democrats have not seen the bill either."

Earlier today, all 24 Republican members of the Energy and Commerce Committee criticized Speaker Pelosi for putting "politics over progress," and called on Democrats to work with Republicans in a bipartisan manner to bring down drug prices for the American people.

Walden echoed that sentiment during the hearing.

Click here or on the image above to watch Walden's remarks.

Full Transcript:

This committee has a long history of going after these issues and stopping bad behavior. We’ve led on surprise medical billing and are having a discussion about that, passed legislation unanimously out of this committee. We rewrote the full FDA user fee agreements, trying to get generics to market sooner. We did that in bipartisan way and passed that unanimously, and they were able to put 971 generics into market last year – record number in a single year – so we believe in bringing competition to the market.

We’ve worked together on 21st Century Cures, and there’s more work to be done there but that was almost unanimous, investing in medical research that leads to new drugs and new treatments and precision medicine. These diseases, these problems hit us regardless of background or party.

We were together in this committee on CREATES – to stop bad behavior – unfortunately, after it left our good committee of energy and commerce it got wrapped up in partisan politics and poison pills were added on the floor. Otherwise, it would have passed unanimously. That’s the same on pay to delay and fixing that, that got wrapped up and made partisan on the house floor.

As we deal with issue and get into these individual problems, what troubles me this morning is that we’ve now been told that we’re going to have a hearing in the committee next week – Wednesday – on legislation to completely rewrite how we get our drugs and what we pay for them and how the government operates. And, tragically, Republicans have been completely excluded from any of those discussions. Completely. It’s been done out of the Speaker’s office behind closed doors.

I don’t know if you have a copy of the bill, Ms. Dingell or Ms. Schakowsky or anybody else, but I don’t.

It tells me, unfortunately, that this has shifted over to a partisan political issue and not a solution for pharmaceutical costs gone wild. I would hope that before we notice hearings and I would hope that before we try to pick this up next Wednesday, that we a chance to read through the bill.

I’m deeply disappointed that we were not asked to be part of any of these discussions leading up to it. I understand from the press clippings I’m seeing already it sounds like some Democrats are not happy, and some Democrats have not seen the bill either. That’s no way to deal with both helping our consumers and making sure we don’t trash innovation. We’ve proven our ability on this committee – this great Energy and Commerce Committee – of coming together around these issues and letting the committee process work.

We’ve all seen in our parties over time that when things get crafted outside of our environs, they don’t always get it right and then we’re going to get jammed with a bill that we have very little time to review and then, I’m told, come back and markup and vote on it. I just plead with you – it doesn’t have to be this way. It doesn’t have to be this way.

To your point, Ms. Dingell, these diseases affect us all. What you went through with John, what I went through with my parents and my wife’s mother who had severe rheumatoid arthritis, and passed away years ago. She had to deal with this her entire life. We’ve all been through this. My wife used to carry around EpiPen’s and they became so expensive, her doctor said “you can probably get away with a little Benadryl.” Our son in his youth had an inhaler because he had asthma, fortunately he outgrew it.

We all went after EpiPen, we all went after these things. We can all go after really good public policy in this sector too. But please, let us be part of it. Let us be part of these discussions. We have really bright, capable people, as you know, on this side as you do on your side. Don’t exclude us from the legislative process. Don’t spring a hearing on us for next Wednesday and not even give us legislative text but just some document on what it may be or not be. That’s not in the great traditions of this committee and it’s not in the best interest in public health and solving the problem that we have.

We have a president that is fully committed. You can like or dislike Donald Trump, I’ve never seen a president more engaged on this issue about bringing down pharmaceutical drug costs. There is an opportunity to be had here; to achieve grand results that will benefit our consumers, maintain innovation, keep America in the lead. I hope partisan politics do not snuff that out.

With that I yield back.