WASHINGTON — Seventy-two senators and 302 members of the House of Representatives cashed a check from the pharmaceutical industry ahead of the 2020 election — representing more than two-thirds of Congress, according to a new STAT analysis of records for the full election cycle.

Pfizer’s political action committee alone contributed to 228 lawmakers. Amgen’s PAC donated to 218, meaning that each company helped to fund the campaigns of nearly half the lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Overall, the sector donated $14 million.

The breadth of the spending highlights the drug industry’s continued clout in Washington. Even after years of criticism from Congress and the White House over high prices, it remains routine for the elected officials who regulate the health care industry to accept six-figure sums.

The findings, published in a new STAT examination of the drug industry’s political giving, also come on the heels of an extraordinary year for the pharmaceutical industry. In 2020, the federal government leaned heavily on drug makers to develop Covid-19 vaccines at lightning speed — helping to rehabilitate the industry’s reputation and political credibility in the process.

STAT’s analysis includes an interactive map that allows readers to visualize contributions between individual drug industry PACs and states, lawmakers, and congressional districts. It builds upon a previous analysis STAT published before the election, and now includes complete records for the 2020 election cycle.

Donations from companies like Pfizer and Amgen are among the most visibly widespread.

Pfizer, which played arguably the biggest role in 2020’s vaccine race, also had a frenzied year politically. In addition to giving roughly $1 million to members of Congress,  Pfizer also wrote checks to 1,048 individual candidates in state legislative races.

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June 4, 2024 9:00 pm ET

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In a February one-on-one chat in the Oval Office with House Speaker Mike Johnson, the president said a recent policy change by his administration that jeopardizes some big energy projects was just a study, according to six people told at the time about what Johnson said had happened. Johnson worried the president’s memory had slipped about the details of his own policy.

House Republicans Introduce Bill to Withdraw Funding from Globalist’s World Economic Forum

Speakers –

Frank Gaffney with Dr. Carol Swain, Col. Dr. Ron Scott, USAF (Ret.), LTG

Jerry Boykin, USA (Ret.), Jenny Beth Martin, Hon. Kenneth Blackwell, Sam

Faddis, Hon. Robert Charles, Esq., Major General Joseph W. Arbuckle, USA

(Ret.), Elaine Donnelly, David Pyne, Kris Ullman, Eric Early, Capt. James

Fanell, USN (Ret.), Ken Abramowitz, Ann Schockett, LTG Rod Bishop, USAF

(Ret.), E.W. Jackson, Christine Reagan, LTC Tommy Waller, USMC (Ret.),

and Ron Armstrong

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