House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks at a Fed Up? Rise Up! rally outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC September 24, 2019.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday approved Speaker Nancy Pelosi's sweeping drug pricing bill, a key step in getting the legislation to the full House floor for a vote later this year.

The bill passed on a vote of 30 to 22 on Thursday evening.

The main thrust of Pelosi's bill will allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices on as many as 250 of the most expensive drugs per year and apply those discounts to private health plans across the U.S. The bill also includes a penalty on drugmakers that refuse to negotiate or fail to reach an agreement with the U.S. government, starting at 65% of the gross sales of the drug in question.

Republican members on the committee expressed concerns with the legislation, particularly that it would discourage innovation for new medicines in the pharmaceutical industry. Some GOP members said the legislation was rushed and dead on arrival in the Senate.

"I don't believe that I was elected to write bills that would never go anywhere," said Michael Burgess of Texas, the top Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee's health panel. "And that's exactly where this bill is headed."