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Energy and Commerce Committee Forwards Four Schakowsky Bills to the House Floor

July 17, 2019

Washington, DC – Today, the House Energy and Commerce Committee successfully passed 25 pieces of bi-partisan legislation, sending them to the House floor for consideration by the entire chamber. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, a Senior Chief Deputy Whip and Chair of the Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee sponsored four robust and bipartisan pieces of legislation that were passed in today’s markup—more than any other member of the Committee.

“I started my career as a consumer advocate, so I am especially proud to serve as Chairwoman of the Consumer Protection and Commerce subcommittee this Congress. Today, we were able to move forward several bills we ushered through my subcommittee that will protect consumers and save lives,” said Congresswoman Schakowsky. “I am also incredibly proud to sponsor two critical health care bills that were unanimously approved by my colleagues. The METRIC Act (H.R. 2296), which incorporates my FAIR Drug Pricing Act, will finally offer the American people transparency around prescription drug pricing, and my EMPOWER for Health Act (H.R. 2781) will increase the strength, skill, and diversity of our health care workforce.”

The bills Congresswoman Schakowsky introduced and forwarded to the House floor today include:

  • H.R. 2211, the “STURDY Act,” directs the Consumer Product Safety Commission to adopt a stronger, mandatory stability standard for clothing storage units within one year of enactment, following the streamlined rulemaking process that it has used for numerous children’s products. This standard may be based on a voluntary standard such as ASTM’s but must include specific additional criteria to ensure children’s safety, including; an increased weight limit to simulate children up to six years old, testing under real world conditions such as climbing, carpeted floors, and open drawers, inclusion of smaller clothing storage units; and strengthened warning requirements.
  • H.R. 3170, the “Safe Cribs Act of 2019,” which would prohibit the manufacture for sale, offer for sale, distribution in commerce, or import of crib bumpers, which canpose suffocation, strangulation, and choking hazards to infants.
  • H.R. 2781,the “EMPOWER for Health Act of 2019,” is designed to increase access to health care in underserved areas and increase diversity of health care providers to meet the needs of different populations. It will reauthorize the Title VII health professions education and training programs from Fiscal Year 2020 through Fiscal Year 2024.
  • H.R. 2296, the “More Efficient Tools to Realize Information for Consumers Act” or the “METRIC Act,” introduced by Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Francis Rooney (R-FL), would require certain drug manufacturers to submit a comprehensive, accurate, and truthful justification report to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) before increasing the price of a qualifying drug. All non-proprietary information from the reports will be made public so that American taxpayers who fund research and development on so many prescription drugs will receive the public notice and transparency they deserve. The package also includes additional measures to increase transparency around the rebates and merger activity of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), to require that insurers give real-time drug price information to seniors enrolled in Medicare Part D, and to force drug companies to report more information to the Department of Health and Human Services about their average sales prices and the samples they provide.
Issues:Health