Relentless inflation has acted like a stealth tax on Iowans’ pocketbooks, eating away at paychecks and slimming down savings accounts. It’s the top concern I hear from Iowans at every single one of my 99 county meetings. On average, Iowa families are spending nearly $670 more on living expenses since President Biden took office. While Majority Leader Schumer and President Biden have failed to produce any meaningful solutions, or even stop the reckless spending and anti-energy policies that're fueling inflation, I’ve continued working on commonsense proposals that can bring down prices and help Iowans keep more of their hard-earned money.
Middle-Class Savings and Investment Act
Lower- and middle-income families, retirees, small businesses and farmers have watched as their savings erode in value while still facing taxes on gains that may not even keep pace with inflation. That’s why I introduced the Middle-Class Savings and Investment Act, which would provide targeted relief and protections for these savings. Incentivizing savings could also help tame consumer demand – a driving factor of inflation.
Specifically, my proposal would target relief for Americans by:
To prevent adding to the national debt, my proposal includes an extension of the current cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction to pay for this inflation relief.
Family and Community Inflation Relief Act
Several key tax provisions that benefit parents, students and other Americans currently do not account for soaring inflation. My Family and Community Inflation Relief Act would fix this problem by ensuring tax benefits afforded to families and students are not eroded at a time when they’re seeing their paychecks shrink and costs rise due to inflation.
My bill specifically targets the following tax benefits:
To prevent adding to the national debt, this proposal also includes an extension of the current cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction to pay for this inflation relief. For more information, a summary of the bill is available here.
Keeping track of government spending to tame the fires of inflation
Democrats' partisan, reckless spending has fueled the fires of inflation. I'm a cosponsor of two bills that seek to keep a closer eye on how government spending could impact inflation.
I joined Senator Ernst in putting forward the Providing Reports on Inflation Costs and Economic Impact (PRICE) Act. The PRICE Act would require the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to issue an inflation report on all spending proposals, which would detail the impact that any spending would have on prices and paychecks.
I also joined Senator Tim Scott as a cosponsor of the Inflation Prevention Act. This bill makes it harder for the Senate to pass legislation that provides new budget authority that would result in an increase to the rate of inflation. This provision would apply if the annualized rate of inflation exceeds 4.5 percent.
No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act
For too long, the U.S. has allowed the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, to get away with illegal price fixing and engaging in anti-competitive behavior. I’ve been working to pass bipartisan legislation, the No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act, or NOPEC, to put an end to these nefarious practices.
NOPEC explicitly authorizes the Justice Department to bring lawsuits against oil cartel members for antitrust violations. It would clarify that neither sovereign immunity nor the “Act of State” doctrine prevents a court from ruling on antitrust charges brought against foreign governments for engaging in illegal pricing, production and distribution of petroleum products. OPEC is a 15-member organization that controls more than 73 percent of the world’s crude oil reserves.
As ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, I was able to usher NOPEC through the committee in May. It passed with bipartisan support, 17-4, and now it’s up to Majority Leader Schumer to bring it to the Senate floor for a vote.
Home Front Energy Independence Act
When gas prices first began hitting record highs, I teamed up with Senator Ernst to introduce the bipartisan Home Front Energy Independence Act. We called on President Biden to unleash Iowa biofuels immediately to replace banned Russian oil with clean-burning, American-made renewable fuels that are available right now. I said it then, and it still rings true now: Iowa producers stand ready to meet the moment and ramp up production to lower gas prices for families across the country.
Specifically, the Home Front Energy Independence Act combined several parts of our past bills that would:
After months of bipartisan pressure, Biden finally announced that the administration would allow E15 to be sold year round. Biofuels consistently provide consumers with a more affordable fuel option, and I’ll continue to be an outspoken advocate for using energy resources grown in Iowa and available right under our feet – rather than tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve or begging OPEC for dirty oil.
Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act and Meat Packing Special Investigator Act
Currently, four big meat packing companies control more than 80 percent of the daily livestock slaughter. These packers often enter into hidden contracts with large cattle feedlots, making it difficult for smaller, independent producers to get a fair shake or even identify a fair price in the market – all while making it easier for packers to increase their profits and driving up costs for consumers. For example, JBS – one of the big four meat packers – recently settled a $52 million beef price-fixing lawsuit. Sysco, the largest food distributor in the U.S., recently filed a lawsuit against these packers alleging price fixing. They claim these packers intentionally reduced the number of slaughtered cattle to inflate beef prices that families are forced to pay.
While restoring competition to the cattle marketplace has been an issue I’ve been working on long before inflation hit a 40-year high to help producers get a fair price, enhancing price transparency and discovery would also potentially bring down prices for consumers at the meat counter. At the end of June, the Agriculture Committee voted to advance the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act, a bipartisan proposal I’ve been leading alongside Senators Fischer of Nebraska, Tester of Montana and Wyden of Oregon. This legislation seeks to bolster the negotiated cash market by requiring the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish a mandatory minimum amount of purchases through an approved and transparent pricing structure for large meat packers, increasing competition in the cattle marketplace.
The Agriculture Committee also passed the Meat Packing Special Investigator Act, another bipartisan bill I’ve been working on to address anticompetitive practices in the meat and poultry industries. Our proposal seeks to create the “Office of the Special Investigator for Competition Matters” within the USDA’s Packers and Stockyards Division. The new USDA special investigator will have a team of investigators, with subpoena power, dedicated to preventing and addressing anticompetitive practices in the meat and poultry industries and enforcing our nation's antitrust laws.
While both bills have passed the Agriculture Committee with bipartisan support and can help bring down the price of meat at the grocery store, it’s now up to Majority Leader Schumer to bring them to the Senate floor for a vote.
Bringing down other input prices, like the price of fertilizer
When producers are forced to pay higher prices for growing the food we eat and delivering it to grocery stores, some of that extra cost is paid by consumers at the cash register. That’s why bringing down the price of gasoline and diesel could help alleviate inflationary pressure on food, clothing and other everyday items. Besides gas prices, there are other input costs to consider – like the fertilizer farmers rely on for healthy and high-yield crops. Earlier this year, farmers reported paying prices four to five times higher than last year for critical fertilizers.
On multiple occasions, I joined my colleague in urging the International Trade Commission (ITC) to address the strain on the fertilizer supply chain to bring down costs. Specifically, I asked the ITC to eliminate duties on phosphate fertilizer products imported from Morocco and to suspend efforts to impose new duties on urea ammonium fertilizer from Trinidad and Tobago. Import duties exacerbate the fragility of the global food supply by disrupting a reliable supply of protein staples, resulting in food insecurity in the U.S. and around the world.
Thankfully, the ITC listened to our request. In a unanimous vote, the commission voted down imposing steep fertilizer tariffs, which will prevent prices from soaring even higher for Iowa farmers.
In the past 12 months alone, I’ve passed five bipartisan drug-pricing bills out of committee that seek to lower prices, increase competition, and hold Big Pharma and middlemen accountable.
Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act
In 2019, when I served as chairman of the Finance Committee, I successfully passed my bipartisan Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act (PDPRA) through the committee. The proposal seeks to improve Medicare and Medicaid and bring much needed transparency across the supply chain. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the bill would save seniors and Americans with disabilities $72 billion in out-of-pocket costs in Medicare Part D and reduce premiums by $1 billion. The entire bill would save taxpayers nearly $100 billion – a rare source of bipartisan budget savings in an era of trillion dollar deficits.
PDPRA has been endorsed by organizations spanning the political spectrum, from the senior group AARP to the libertarian Cato Institute. Other endorsements include America’s Health Insurance Plans, the Association for Accessible Medicine, the Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing and Patients for Affordable Drugs Now.
Unfortunately, Majority Leader Schumer won’t bring it up for a vote – even though it would easily pass the Senate. That hasn’t stopped me from trying to find other ways to help bring down the cost of medication.
Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act
I recently joined Senator Cantwell of Washington to introduce the Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) Transparency Act. This bipartisan bill focuses on the drug industry's middlemen: PBMs. Today, three PBMs control nearly 80 percent of the prescription drug market, and they get away with operating in the shadows. They make decisions that are often unknown to consumers, pharmacies and regulators – increasing their profits while driving up costs for consumers and taxpayers in the process.
The PBM Transparency Act, which has already successfully passed the Commerce Committee with bipartisan support, would direct the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to hold PBMs accountable for unfair and deceptive practices. Specifically, the legislation:
This proposal is supported by the National Community Pharmacists Association, Community Oncology Alliance, Biotechnology Innovation Organization, American Pharmacy Cooperative, Association of Mature American Citizens, American Pharmacists Association and Autoimmune Association. This is another bill that has passed out of committee with bipartisan support but has yet to be brought to the Senate floor for a vote by Majority Leader Schumer.
Stop Significant and Time-wasting Abuse Limiting Legitimate Innovation of New Generics (Stop STALLING) Act
The Stop STALLING Act, which passed the Judiciary Committee last summer, would reduce the incentives for branded pharmaceutical companies to file sham petitions with the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to interfere with the regulatory approval of generics and biosimilars that would compete with their own products, a tactic that delays patient access to more affordable medications. The bill would give the FTC enhanced authority to take action against those who file sham petitions.
Preserving Access to Affordable Generics and Biosimilars Act
The Preserving Access to Affordable Generics and Biosimilars Act, which also passed the Judiciary Committee last summer, would limit anticompetitive “pay-for-delay deals” that prevent or delay the introduction of affordable follow-on or generic versions of branded pharmaceuticals. Pay-for-delay deals – the practice in which drug companies use pay-off agreements to delay the introduction of cheaper substitutes – increase the cost of prescriptions and impose significant costs on our health care system. The legislation covers pay-for-delay deals affecting biosimilar and interchangeable biologics in addition to generic drugs.
Prescription Pricing for the People
The Prescription Pricing for the People Act, which also passed the Judiciary Committee last summer, requires the FTC to examine the effects of consolidation on pricing and other potentially abusive behavior within the PBM industry, and provide policy recommendations to Congress to improve competition and protect consumers.
Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act
The Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act, which also passed the Judiciary Committee last summer, would curb major drug companies’ abuse of patents through product hopping and ever-greening tactics that prevent generic and biosimilar competition from coming to market.
