Beech Tree News Network

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today (7/20/23), at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee meeting, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Chairman of the HELP Committee, forbade U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) from offering an amendment that would require federal employees to reveal financial disclosures and royalty payments.

 Below are Dr. Paul’s remarks as prepared:

 “Some employees of the federal government are receiving royalties paid out by companies, including pharmaceutical manufacturers, who often have business before the agencies that oversee them. Without this amendment, taxpayers, and Congress itself are left in the dark when trying to assess conflicts of interest.

 “According to OpenTheBooks, who sued for the information and received redacted documents, about 2,400 NIH scientists received more than $300 million in royalty payments during the last decade. That’s an average royalty payment of $135,000. But NIH redacted key details and we don’t know who is making payments, how much each payment amounted to, or why the payment was made.

“Even Dr. Fauci, who received at least two dozen royalty payments through 2021, refused to tell Congress what he received in royalties. We know how much his salary was—over $400,000 a year—but to this day, we don’t know who paid Dr. Fauci in royalties, or how much they paid him, or even for what they paid him.

“Shouldn’t we care about conflicts of interest? Shouldn’t we stop and think that perhaps the people that dole out government grants will be tempted to reward those companies that give them royalties. The time for royalty transparency is long overdue.”

You can read the amendmentHERE and watch Dr. Paul’s remarks HERE.