Herb Jackson

Washington Correspondent, @HerbNJDC

Pilloried by his party’s left wing for voting in January against a non-binding measure with a similar goal, Sen. Cory Booker is joining Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday to unveil a bill to allow the importation of pharmaceuticals from Canada and other countries.

Booker, who has been mentioned as a potential 2020 presidential candidate, came under fire on social media and liberal blogs as too beholden to special interests after he and 12 Democratic colleagues, including fellow New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, voted against a drug-importation amendment to the 2017 budget resolution.

That amendment, sponsored by Sanders, of Vermont, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., was part of a series of votes, all defeated, to amend the budget resolution the Republican majority was using to start the process of repealing the Affordable Care Act. Sanders reacted angrily after the 46-52 vote, telling USA Today his Democratic colleagues lacked “guts” and he hoped that “in the coming weeks and months you’re going to see many of them develop the courage to stand up to Pharma.”

Booker had said he would support drug importation if it included safeguards for consumers that the Sanders-Klobuchar amendment lacked. Details of the protections in the new bill are to be released at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

Other sponsors include Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., Martin Heinrich, D-N.M, who both opposed the January amendment, and Angus King, I-Maine. House sponsors are Reps. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas.

After the January vote, Booker featured prominently in an Internet meme that listed the names of the 13 Democratic opponents to the measure and the amount of money they got from “big Pharma.” That meme was not entirely accurate, and ignored that the 13 voted for a different amendment the same day that also sought lower drug prices.

But it reinforced criticism Booker had sustained in the past as someone too comfortable with Wall Street and other moneyed interests. It also was a new strike with Sanders supporters against Booker, an outspoken campaign surrogate for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Booker cited the pharmaceutical importation vote when asked Feb. 3 if he was feeling pressure from his party’s left wing. He said he still believed he was right to oppose the Klobuchar-Sanders amendment, but that he had also approached Sanders to see if they could craft a bill they could both support.