Chronology of Committee Work

Prescription Drug Fairness for Seniors Act

Reps. Waxman and Tom Allen, along with over 100 other members of Congress, introduced the Prescription Drug Fairness for Seniors Act (H.R. 1400). This bill will protect seniors from price discrimination and allow Medicare beneficiaries to purchase drugs at substantially reduced prices. The legislation achieves these goals by allowing pharmacies that serve Medicare beneficiaries to purchase drugs at the low “average foreign price.”

Investigation Finds Detroit Election Reforms Worked

At the request of Rep. Waxman, the Special Investigations Division conducted a case study of efforts to reduce uncounted ballots in Detroit, the nation's poorest city. The investigation found that Detroit's reforms worked. By replacing punch-card machines and conducting voter education, Detroit reduced the percent of uncounted votes for president by two-thirds between 1996 and 2000. The report was released during a “Special Investigations Briefing” on April 5, 2001.

Rep. Waxman Introduces Legislation to Reverse the Bush Administration Rollback

Rep. Waxman has introduced the "Get Arsenic Out of Our Drinking Water Act" (H.R. 1413) to reverse the arsenic rollback. Over 160 members of Congress have cosponsored this legislation.

Prescription Drug Fairness for Seniors Act

Reps. Tom Allen and Henry Waxman, along with over 100 other members of Congress, introduced the Prescription Drug Fairness for Seniors Act (H.R. 1400). This bill will protect seniors from price discrimination and allow Medicare beneficiaries to purchase drugs at substantially reduced prices. The legislation achieves these goals by allowing pharmacies that serve Medicare beneficiaries to purchase drugs at the low “average foreign price.” A bill similar to H.R. 1400, H.R. 664, was introduced by Reps. Allen, Turner, and Waxman in the 106th Congress.

West Coast Democrats Ask President to Intervene at FERC

Forty-two West Coast Democrats wrote to President Bush requesting that he intervene at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The FERC has refused to protect Western families from skyrocketing electricity prices or to act on allegations of price gouging in the wholesale electricity market.

Reports Assess Impact of Worker Safety Rollbacks

A series of reports prepared by the Special Investigations Division of the minority staff investigates the impact of these worker safety rollbacks at the state level.

Reports on Arsenic Contamination of Drinking Water

At the request of several members, the Special Investigations Division has prepared reports that analyze the impact of the arsenic rollback at the state level.

Rep. Waxman Awards the “Golden Jackpot” Award to EPA Administrator Christine Whitman

Rep. Waxman presented the Golden Jackpot Award to EPA Adminstrator Christine Whitman in honor of the Bush Administration´s indefensible decision to revoke the arsenic standard.

Investigation Finds Loopholes in Gun Background Checks

At the request of Rep. Waxman, the Special Investigations Division and GAO examined the effectiveness of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). As part of this investigation, GAO agents used off-the-shelf software to make counterfeit drivers licenses and then used these false IDs to buy guns in five states: Virginia, West Virginia, Montana, New Mexico, and Arizona. The agents were successful in all five states. As part of the investigation, GAO issued its own report concluding that the instant background check system cannot ensure that prospective purchasers are not felons or others ineligible to buy guns.

Poor Enforcement of Nursing Home Protections in New York

A report prepared by the Special Investigations Division for Reps. Louise Slaughter and Carolyn Maloney found that the New York State Department of Health has done a poor job of protecting New York's nursing home residents. According to federal inspectors, state inspectors, who are responsible for enforcing federal nursing home standards, committed "egregious omissions" and missed "overwhelming evidence of widespread quality of care problems." Report found that state inspectors often missed disturbing violations, such as the failure to provide proper pain medication or the use of unnecessary physical restraints.

Child Tobacco Use Prevention Act and FDA Tobacco Jurisdiction Act

Reps. Waxman, James Hansen, and Marty Meehan introduced the Child Tobacco Use Prevention Act of 2001 (H.R. 1044). This comprehensive legislation to reduce tobacco use by children provides FDA the authority to regulate tobacco, establishes performance-based standards to give individual tobacco companies economic incentives to reduce the numbers of children that smoke, creates national requirements for smoke-free environments, and funds a new nationwide public education campaign. Reps. Waxman, Hansen, and Meehan also introduced the FDA Tobacco Jurisdiction Act of 2001 (H.R. 1043). This legislation authorizes the FDA to regulate tobacco products, validates FDA’s tobacco rule, and incorporates some key additional requirements, such as the elimination of the Marlboro Man and other human figures in advertising.

Medicaid Drug Price Manipulation

At Rep. Waxman's request, the Inspector General of HHS and the Special Investigations Division have examined allegiations allegations that drug companies have circumvented the requirement that they provide the Medicaid program with rebates based on their “best” or lowest drug prices.

Statistics on the Campaign Finance Investigation

During the course of the campaign finance investigation, Rep. Burton issued over 900 unilateral subpoenas, 99% of which targeted Democrats. He also interviewed or deposed hundreds of witnesses and received over a million pages of documents. These – and other – statistics on the investigation have been compiled by the minority staff.

Safety of Drugs for Women

At the request of Rep. Waxman and Senators Tom Harkin, Barbara Mikulski, and Olympia Snowe, GAO reviewed drug products withdrawn from the U.S. market since January 1, 1997. This review revealed that eight of ten prescription drugs withdrawn posed greater risk for women than for men.

Minority Views on the Department of Justice Investigation

The majority’s December 13, 2000, report on the Department of Justice is based on unfounded allegations, unfairly smears numerous individuals, and is highly partisan. The minority views respond to the majority’s claims and describe the Committee’s unfortunate recent pattern of improperly injecting itself into prosecutorial decisions. Several individuals named in the majority report or who represent individuals named in the majority report have written the Committee to register concern about the majority’s report.

Minority Views on the E-mail Report

Throughout the e-mail investigation, the majority has made a number of unsupported, inflammatory, and highly speculative allegations. The majority has repeatedly compared the investigation to Watergate, and has accused a number of past and present government officials of wrongdoing. The minority views respond to these and other allegations made in the majority’s October 2000 e-mail report.

Minority Views on the Waco Investigation Report

As detailed in the minority views, the Committee’s 13-month investigation of Waco was unnecessary, expensive, and fruitless. Although the majority report spans 100 pages and includes nearly 1,400 pages of documentary exhibits, it contributes virtually nothing to the public’s understanding of Waco. Many of the report’s findings duplicate those of Senator Danforth’s investigation. In an interim report issued July 21, 2000, as well as in a final report issued November 8, 2000, Senator Danforth concluded that government agents did not cause or contribute to the fire that consumed the Branch Davidian compound on April 19, 1993, did not direct gunfire at the Branch Davidians on April 19, 1993, and did not unlawfully employ U.S. armed forces at any time during the standoff. To the extent the majority report deviates from Senator Danforth’s findings, it consists largely of unsupported allegations of wrongdoing by the Attorney General and Justice Department officials.

Loopholes in the Drug Reimportation Bill

Congress enacted legislation as part of the Agriculture Appropriations bill (Pub. L. No. 106-387) that purports to address prescription drug price discrimination by allowing the importation of lower priced foreign drugs. In reality, however, the drug reimportation provisions contain numerous loopholes that will prevent the law from reducing drug prices for seniors and other U.S. customers. One of the loopholes in the reimportation provisions creates a labeling “Catch 22” under which drugs cannot be imported into the United States unless the drug manufacturer consents to the importation by authorizing the importer to use the FDA-approved label. Because of the loopholes in the legislation, former HHS Secretary Donna Shalala determined that the law could not be successfully implemented.

Breast Cancer Drugs Are More Expensive on Long Island than in Foreign Countries

This report for Rep. McCarthy is an example of the reports prepared by the Special Investigations Division that compare breast cancer drug prices in the United States with prices in Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It found that breast cancer patients in Long Island pay much more for drugs than consumers in these four industrialized countries.

Committee Hearings on White House E-mails

The Committee held five days of hearings in 2000 on the topic of White House e-mails. Rep. Waxman’s opening statements have attempted to put some of the issues explored at these hearings into their proper context, while rebutting many of the unsubstantiated allegations that have been made by the majority and others during the investigation.

Prescription Drug Coverage

A report for Rep. Waxman by the Special Investigations Division found that over one-third of California seniors lack prescription drug coverage. In addition, the report found that many seniors in the state skip or reduce dosages of medications because they cannot afford to follow their doctors’ prescriptions; that the number of uninsured seniors in California is increasing; and that even seniors in the state who have drug insurance encounter difficulty affording their medicine.

Campaign Finance Correspondence

Throughout the campaign finance investigation, Rep. Waxman regularly documented abuses and improper conduct by the majority through correspondence with Rep. Burton. In the 105th Congress, for example, Rep. Waxman wrote 146 letters to Rep. Burton about the conduct of the investigation.

Investigating Class Size

At the request of members of Congress, the Special Investigations Division of the minority staff has conducted investigations into class sizes in grades K-3 in various cities and localities across the country.

Statements on the Campaign Finance Investigation

Rep. Waxman’s opening statements provide a window into many mistakes and unsubstantiated allegations that characterize the majority’s campaign finance investigation.

Legislation Relating to Fifty Caliber Rifles

At the urging of Reps. Blagojevich and Waxman and other members, Congress enacted one important piece of legislation in 1999 relating to fifty caliber sniper weapons as part of the Department of Defense appropriations bill (Pub. L. No. 106-259). This law prohibits the Department of Defense from selling armor-piercing ammunition for fifty caliber weapons to civilians through its demilitarization program. Other Important Pieces of Legislationrelating to fifty caliber sniper weapons have been introduced by Reps. Blagojevich and Waxman, but not enacted into law. In 1999, Reps. Blagojevich and Waxman introduced the Military Sniper Weapon Regulation Act (H.R. 2127) to regulate these weapons under the restrictive standards utilized for machine guns and other dangerous weapons. In 1999, Reps. Blagojevich and Waxman also introduced the Law Enforcement Official Protection and Officer John C. Knight Memorial Act (H.R. 2421) to regulate the sale and manufacture of armor piercing and incendiary ammunition.

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