Focusing heavily on national security, Iowa’s delegates introduced legislation allowing fingerprinting of immigrant children at the border and protecting cyber infrastructure from foreign attacks.
Iowans also saw wins for their proposed amendments, including Rep. Randy Feenstra’s fight against “burdensome regulations” on farmland.
Check out what Iowa’s lawmakers did last week:
Miller-Meeks bill addresses drug price gouging concerns
Targeting commercial insurance companies, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks introduced legislation to prevent drug price gouging by the companies.
The De-linking Revenue from Unfair Gouging (DRUG) Act targets pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and their practice of driving up list prices, which increase insurance premiums and prescription drug costs, according to Miller-Meeks’ office.
The spread pricing used by PBMs “adds opacity to a supply chain that needs transparency,” according to Miller-Meeks’ office.
The bill would create policies for the PBM to charge a flat fee, rather than a percentage of the drug price and ban spread pricing.
The DRUG Act would also attempt to eliminate incentives for affiliated pharmacies by prohibiting PBMs from paying affiliated pharmacies more than independent pharmacies and would prohibit PBMs from encouraging patients to use affiliated pharmacies.
“Pharmacy benefit managers have excessive influence over the prices patients pay at the pharmacy counter,” Miller-Meeks said in a news release. “The DRUG Act puts downward pressure on prescription drug prices and insurance premiums by removing the incentive for PBMs to drive up the list price of a medication.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley added an amendment in a finance committee meeting to attempt to preserve rural pharmacies in advance of direct and indirect Medicare clawbacks starting Jan. 1. The amendment requires the Department of Health and Human Services to report to Congress the effects of the upcoming changes in Medicare Part D.
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services responded to a letter Grassley sent last week, acknowledging the concerns raised by Grassley regarding the Jan. 1 change. The memo, addressed to Medicare Part D sponsors, asked them to prepare for changes coming on Jan. 1.
Ernst on immigrant treatment
Sen. Joni Ernst announced a bill that would grant authority to border patrol agents to fingerprint non-citizens under the age of 14 crossing the border in an attempt to combat child trafficking.
“The crisis at our Southern border is a criminal’s dream and leaves children vulnerable to abuse and trafficking,” Ernst said in a news release.
Children who cross the border multiple times are considered “recycled” children — a bad actor may use a child to appear as though they are part of a family to cross the border. Ernst’s bill looks to eliminate that practice.
In addition to allowing the fingerprinting of young people, it would create harsher penalties for people caught child recycling. The bill would require the Department of Homeland Security to keep track of the number of apprehensions, require an annual report to Congress and criminalize child recycling.
In other news regarding Ernst’s efforts at the border, she and eight other Republicans wrote a letter to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).
The letter is in “fervent opposition” to a proposed rule by the office which includes a provision that would not prohibit the Office of Refugee Resettlement from accessing health care services, including abortions.
“The proposed rule neglects the conscience and religious freedom protections that Congress has afforded to ORR employees and contractors,” the senators wrote. “The proposed rule would shockingly require ORR staff and contractors to transport children across state lines for the purpose of obtaining an abortion.”
Nunn considers national security threats
Facing what he called a “disaster looming 1,000 times worse than Chinese ownership of TikTok,” Rep. Zach Nunn introduced a bill to prevent foreign countries from accessing national security intelligence and other private information.
The Creating Legal Accountability for Rogue Innovators and Technology Act would stop the use of Chinese-developed blockchain technology by the federal government.
“Within the next decade, every American will have sensitive, private data stored using blockchain technology,” Nunn said in a news release. “China’s heavy investment in this infrastructure poses a colossal national security and data privacy problem.”
The bipartisan bill would prohibit the use of Chinese-developed blockchain technology and direct the secretary of treasury, secretary of state and director of national intelligence to create a plan to prevent risks of such technologies.
Nunn advocated for the cause on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Nunn bill expands fentanyl reversal meds
Nunn proposed increased grants for the purchase of and training for naloxone for businesses and individuals. Naloxone, a medication to reverse opioid overdoses, can be used to rapidly counteract the effects of synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
“We can and must save lives from overdoses,” Nunn said in a news release. “Expanding access to reversal medication is critical to ensure life-saving care is available in the event of an overdose.”
Nunn’s bipartisan bill would create a standard for opioid overdose reversal for employees, including training via the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Currently, the Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Program provides federal funds to states and local governments to plan, develop and implement opioid-related problems.
Hinson bill funds foreign security solutions
Rep. Ashley Hinson, among a bipartisan cohort, introduced a bill that would use $3.08 billion in unobligated COVID relief funds to replace communication equipment made by Chinese manufacturers Huawei and ZTE that has been or will be removed as a result of a 2020 law that banned such equipment.
There are 24,000 pieces of Chinese-made communications equipment in the U.S., according to Hinson’s office, and discarding the equipment is “critical to protecting Americans’ privacy..."