WASHINGTON — President Trump’s splashiest idea for lowering the cost of prescription drug prices was to force pharmaceutical companies to include the prices of their products in TV and other advertisements.
But when Capitol Hill had a chance Thursday to help him achieve that goal, lawmakers failed. And counterintuitively, it was House members in the president’s own party who ultimately nixed the provision. In fact, it was a Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, pushing the measure hardest.
The provision in question is an amendment from Durbin and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) that would give the Food and Drug Administration $1 million to help get the ball rolling on Trump’s advertising idea, which he first floated in May. The pair of lawmakers was hoping to include it in a major government funding bill expected to get a vote in the coming weeks.
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