Murphy still facing pressure after voting for $1.75T bill
U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy said she avoided the noise from all sides in deciding to vote for President Biden’s $1.75 trillion Build Back Better package last month, adding that key negotiations done in her office helped smooth the differences between progressives and moderates.
“In Washington, too often leadership tries to run the tables,” Murphy, D-Winter Park, said in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. “And the way we got to the negotiated outcome was rank-and-file members huddled in my office, and we hammered out the deal that allowed us to move forward. … And so in that sense, the relationship between [Democratic] members got stronger.”
But the criticisms haven’t stopped, as conservative groups that once praised her are now claiming “betrayal” and liberal groups want more to be done as the measure heads to an uncertain future in the Senate.
Many of the bill’s provisions, such as closing the Medicaid coverage gap for more than 400,000 Floridians, universal Pre-K, and extending the enhanced child tax credit for another year are relatively popular with voters, according to polls.
“Getting the Medicaid gap coverage to survive is really important,” Murphy said. “But so are all of the climate provisions that we were able to get into the [bill]. I think there’s a significant amount of good that can be done. And some would argue it’s a historic amount of climate change work that was in the [bill].”
“So for me, it was a win,” Murphy said.
As Murphy emerged as one of the key votes on the bill as part of a group of centrists who had issues with some provisions of it, she was inundated with ads from liberal, conservative and industry PACs, all urging her to either get on board or to block it.
Now that she’s voted for it, conservative ads are slamming her anew for joining with her fellow Democrats. Some liberal groups are praising her after having once been skeptical.
“She’s positioned herself as a moderate,” said Aubrey Jewett, a professor of political science at the University of Central Florida. “... That brings you a lot of attention, sometimes positive and sometimes negative. But when you set yourself up as the dealmaker, as part of a group that will decide whether legislation passes or not, that comes with the territory.”
Murphy said the ads played no role in her decision to vote yes.
“My guiding star is always what is right for my constituents, what moves this country forward and what sits with my conscience,” Murphy said. “I don’t listen to those outside interest groups.”
Anyone in Central Florida watching TV or reading something online over the past few months had a good chance of seeing an ad trying to urge Murphy in one direction or another. Many times, the ads were so vague that many people might not have known they were about the bill at all.
An organization called Incubate, which describes itself as “a coalition of venture capital organizations representing the patient, corporate, and investment communities,” ran ads stating, “Thank you Rep. Stephanie Murphy, for protecting future cures.”
The Club for Growth, a conservative, anti-tax increase group that routinely backs Republicans, ran ads praising Murphy for opposing “Democrats’ failed policies.”
In turn, progressives slammed Murphy and highlighted contributions she got from the healthcare industry. Murphy received $54,000 from the industry this cycle, and more than $117,000 in 2020.
The group Patients For Affordable Drugs Now launched its own ad urging Murphy to vote for the bill. It featured Kris Garcia, who has hemophilia, saying, “For
millions of Americans like me, this isn’t about politics — this is about life and death.”
Redistricting unknowns
Murphy has been considered one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents for reelection and a longtime target of national Republicans. But she has won relatively easily in a district that has been split evenly between Republicans and Democrats.
The quandary for Murphy is that she doesn’t know what her district will look like in 2022.
The GOP-led Legislature could split it up as it tackles redistricting during its regular session next month and leave her with few good options to avoid running in a GOP-leaning seat, if one draft plan released Monday is any indication.
But other draft plans basically
leave Murphy’s seat alone, meaning she has to worry about upsetting the Democratic base in a district that includes an increasingly blue Seminole County and parts of blue Orange County.
“That one map is one of more than a dozen maps that are being considered,” Murphy said. “My hope as always is that the Legislature abides by the constitutional rules around redistricting. And for my part, I am going to stay focused on my job, because I’ve always believed that if you do your job well, the politics will take care of itself.”
Medicare drug prices
The bill’s passage came after months of negotiations between the White House, centrists and progressives. As the process moved forward, Murphy and other centrists voted against some
of the provisions in committees and then required a Congressional Budget Office score before agreeing to a vote.
The centrists wanted the separate $1.2 trillion, bipartisan transportation bill passed first and sent to Biden’s desk for his signature, instead of waiting to pass both together. They also had concerns about the BBB bill’s initial $3.5 trillion price tag.
Murphy also had issues with the Medicare drug pricing provisions of the bill, which would allow that agency to negotiate the cost of drugs. The bill passed by the House notably included a compromise on the issue that Murphy helped negotiate.
“My focus when it related to drug pricing was always to land in a place that we could actually get across the finish line and signed into law,” Murphy said. “... I was really proud to be a part of an effort to negotiate a path to lowering the cost of prescription drugs for consumers without impairing the ability for American scientists and researchers to create new medicines.”
As part of the negotiations, she added, the bill caps the price of insulin at $35 a month.
But the changes made to the bill were not enough to please Incubate, the industry group that once praised her for “protecting future cures.”
The group’s executive director, John Stanford, told Healthcare Finance, “as investors in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, we’re alarmed by the potential consequences of the drug-pricing measure included in the Build Back Better Act.”
The Club for Growth, meanwhile, didn’t wait for her vote before launching an ad attacking Murphy. One week earlier, Murphy was one of five Democrats attacked in an ad proclaiming, “‘Don’t betray us. Vote no like you promised.”
On the other side, the League of Conservation Voters and Climate Action announced plans to run ads thanking Murphy and other Democrats for voting yes on the bill.
“Our district polling shows how much constituents in Rep. Murphy’s district want climate action, which means this will be a key issue heading into the midterms,” the groups said in a statement.
The bill now heads to the Senate, where moderates including U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Arizona, have said they have issues with parts of it.
But Murphy was optimistic a final version of the bill will get done, though she did not provide specific details about what’s being negotiated.
“I’m working now with my Senate counterparts to make sure that the core things that are priorities for my constituents remain as we try to make the bill a bit more targeted,” she said.