Klobuchar, Lee, Durbin, Grassley Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Increase Competition in the Pharmaceutical Industry and Lower Prices for Consumers

The bipartisan Short on Competition Act would allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to grant expedited reviews and inspections, and temporary importation when there is, or is likely to be, a drug shortage or when there are fewer than five competitors in a drug market The Short on Competition Act could address instances of drug companies dramatically increasing prices for older drugs,such as Turing’s Daraprim and Mylan’s EpiPen WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley of … Continue Reading

Two Pinocchios: “Democrats Engage in ‘Mediscare’ Spin on the Trump Budget”

Washington PostGlenn KesslerMarch 15, 2019 “Democrats have claimed [President Trump] wants to cut $800 billion to $850 billion.” “…it’s a misleading figure. Trump is proposing to move two parts of Medicare — payments to hospitals that treat many patients without insurance and payments to hospitals that educate medical residents — to another part of the budget. So it looks like a $269 billion ‘cut’ to Medicare. But it reflects spending that would mostly continue, at an inflation-adjusted r… Continue Reading

Grassley on the President's 2020 Budget W/ Treasury Sec. Mnuchin

Opening Statement by U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley of IowaChairman, U.S. Senate Finance CommitteeOn the President’s FY 2020 BudgetFeaturing Treasury Secretary Steven MnuchinThursday, March 14, 2019VIDEO Welcome to this afternoon’s hearing. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin is here to testify about the President’s Fiscal Year 2020 budget proposal. The President’s budget includes various proposals to confront a variety of policy issues, including runaway federal spending, border security and immig… Continue Reading

Grassley on the President's 2020 Budget W/ HHS Sec. Azar

Opening Statement by U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley of IowaChairman, U.S. Senate Finance CommitteeOn the President’s FY 2020 BudgetFeaturing HHS Secretary Alex AzarThursday, March 14, 2019VIDEO Good morning. This hearing will come to order. I want to welcome our witness, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Mr. Alex Azar. I appreciate Secretary Azar coming before the committee to talk about the health and human services proposals in President Trump’s budget for … Continue Reading

ICYMI: Iowan Praises Grassley Work to Lower Rx Prices in Op-ed

Transparency, Competition Key to Lower Drug Prices NewsMax By Mark HahnMarch 12, 2019 Since announcing his decision to return to the helm of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Chuck Grassley has been working tirelessly to fulfill a policy priority to improve “the affordability, quality and accessibility of health care.” Nowhere has this been more pronounced than his efforts to rein in out of control drug prices and increase transparency and competition in an otherwise murky marketplac… Continue Reading

Grassley, Wyden Invite 5 Pharmacy Benefit Managers to Drug Pricing Hearing

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ranking Member Ron Wyden of Oregon today invited executives from five pharmacy benefit manager (PBMs) companies to testify before a committee hearing on Wednesday, April 3, 2019, on drug pricing in the United States, the third in a series of hearings examining prescription drug costs. The companies invited include Cigna Corporation, CVS Caremark and CVS Health Corporation, Humana Inc., OptumRx and Prime… Continue Reading

ICYMI: Iowan Praises Grassley Work to Lower Rx Prices in Op-ed

Transparency, Competition Key to Lower Drug Prices NewsMax By Mark HahnMarch 12, 2019 Since announcing his decision to return to the helm of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Chuck Grassley has been working tirelessly to fulfill a policy priority to improve “the affordability, quality and accessibility of health care.” Nowhere has this been more pronounced than his efforts to rein in out of control drug prices and increase transparency and competition in an otherwise murky marketplac… Continue Reading

Grassley-backed IRS Private Debt Collection Program Bringing in Millions to Treasury

WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) provided data to the Senate Finance Committee showing that the Private Debt Collection (PDC) program, a public/private partnership that works to bolster the U.S. Treasury, strengthen the effectiveness of the IRS and ensure fairness in the federal tax system, continues to demonstrate that it can more than pay for itself with revenues returned to the Treasury. “This program is helping make the system fairer to those who follow the law and fu… Continue Reading

Wyden, Grassley Demand Answers On CBP List Targeting Journalists

WASHINGTON - Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, today requested answers about U.S. Custom and Border Protection (CBP) Agents reportedly targeting journalists for searches, in a letter to Customs Commissioner Kevin McAleenan. Media reports indicate that CBP placed at least seven American journalists covering U.S.-Mexico immigration issues on a list for additional scrutiny while crossing the border. In a biparti… Continue Reading

Grassley, Toomey Slam 27 Years of Improper Medicaid Payments

WASHINGTON - Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Finance Subcommittee on Health Care Chairman Pat Toomey are pushing to boost the oversight and integrity of Medicaid eligibility-related payments, nearly ten percent of which have been improper in recent years. The entire budget for the National Institutes of Health is smaller than the amount of erroneous payments made by Medicaid. "To maintain public confidence in such a large commitment of national resources, it is essent… Continue Reading

Grassley: NIH Failure to Consider Risks from Foreign Exposure Alarming

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa today released the following statement regarding a Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) report publicly released March 6, 2019 that Grassley originally received on February 13, 2019 under restricted status. The report found that “NIH did not consider the risk presented by foreign [principal investigators] when permitting access to United States genomic data [and] has not assessed the r… Continue Reading

Grassley on Tax Filing Season

Mr. President, We are now in our sixth week of the tax filing season. Over 50 million Americans have filed their tax returns.  As in previous weeks, the IRS is moving forward in the filing season at a pace consistent with previous years. In some aspects, they are exceeding benchmarks set by the last filing season.  This has been one of the most scrutinized filing seasons I can remember.  In some ways that’s understandable. It’s the first filing season after our tax code received the larg… Continue Reading

Grassley Statement at Hearing on Nursing Home Neglect and Abuse

Opening Statement of Senator Chuck Grassley of IowaChairman, U.S. Senate Committee on Finance“Not Forgotten: Protecting Older Americans from Abuse and Neglect in Nursing Homes”Wednesday, March 6, 2019VIDEO Good morning. I want to welcome everyone to our hearing on an extremely important topic, elder abuse, and thank our witnesses for joining us today. Elder abuse—and nursing home abuse in particular—has been a topic of ongoing concern to me for the last two decades. As the former chairm… Continue Reading

Grassley Announces First Trade Hearing of 116th Congress

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa today announced that the committee will hold a hearing on Tuesday, March 12, 2019 with testimony from U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer assessing the current state of the World Trade Organization (WTO) nearly 25 years after its creation and potential reforms that would strengthen the institution. “The Constitution empowers Congress with regulating commerce with foreign nations. Regular hearings with key … Continue Reading

Iowan to Recount Story of Mother’s Death at Delinquent Nursing Home before Finance Committee

WASHINGTON - Patricia Blank of Shell Rock, Iowa, will testify Wednesday at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on protecting Americans from abuse and neglect in nursing homes. Blank’s mother, Virginia Olthoff, was allegedly left in severe pain and may not have had any water for days before her death while in the care of a nursing home. That nursing home received the highest possible ranking from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for quality of resident care, though it h… Continue Reading