Sen. Ron Johnson is threatening to hold up a bill funding the Food and Drug Administration unless the House sends the Senate a version of the bill that expands terminally ill patients’ access to experimental drugs.
Johnson, R-Wis., is hoping the House includes the so-called “right to try” language in a funding bill it will take up on Wednesday under a suspension of House rules. But if not, he said he expects to prevent quick passage of the bill in the Senate once the upper chamber receives it.
“If the House bill comes to the Senate without ‘right to try’ language in it, I will have no choice but to object to any unanimous consent agreements related to it or any related bill unless right to try is added or the Senate is given an opportunity to vote on my right to try bill as an amendment,” Johnson said in a statement obtained first by the Washington Examiner. “It is time to stand up for terminally ill patients who just want reclaim their freedom by having the right to try and save their own lives – who want the right to hope.”
“Right to try” efforts have gained traction at the state level over the last several years, but also got a boost when President Trump voiced his support earlier this year.
“One thing that’s always disturbed me: They come up with a new drug for a patient who’s terminal, and the FDA says we can’t … approve the drug, because we don’t want to hurt the patient,” Trump said in February. “But the patient is not going to live more than four weeks [anyway]. So, we’re going to be changing a lot of the rules.”
Johnson’s efforts on advancing right-to-try stalled in the Senate last year, something he blamed at the time on then-Minority Leader Harry Reid. Johnson’s 2017 version of the bill has 46 co-sponsors, including bipartisan support from Democratic Sens. Joe Donnelly and Joe Manchin of Indiana and West Virginia, respectively, and independent Sen. Angus King of Maine.
“I have spoken with House leadership and Chairman Walden over the last several weeks and encouraged them to support incorporating right-to-try legislation in the FDA reauthorization bill that is set to pass the House on Wednesday,” Johnson said. “It is my hope that they will support the millions of Americans and their families suffering from terminal illnesses by including right to try language in this bill.”
