WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, today released the following statement on President Trump’s Executive Order targeting the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, a major long-term cost-saving feature of the Inflation Reduction Act which grants Medicare the authority to negotiate prices for up to 60 medications and help make life-saving drugs more affordable to patients: 

“Since day one, Big Pharma has been trying to tear down the Inflation Reduction Act‘s drug pricing provisions—they’re trying to increase their profits. And now, President Trump is bending to Big Pharma’s will and giving them exactly what they want in this Executive Order,” said Senator Welch. “Attacking a program which 85% of Americans support isn’t a win for patients—it’s a win for the pharmaceutical industry. We’ll keep fighting to protect Medicare’s negotiating powers to ensure the federal government follows through on its obligation to care for people and patients.” 

Senator Welch has long supported initiatives to lower prescription drug prices for Vermonters. In September, Senators Welch and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) led colleagues in filing an amicus brief in AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals v. Becerra; Bristol Myers Squibb Co. v. Becerra; and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Becerra in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit urging the court to uphold the constitutionality of Congress empowering Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for consumers.  

Last Congress, Sens. Welch and Klobuchar also introduced the Strengthening Medicare and Reducing Taxpayer (SMART) Prices Act to build on the success of the Inflation Reduction Act to increase the number of drugs eligible for negotiation and unlock the ability of the U.S. Government to negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare Part D beneficiaries. Provisions from Sen. Welch’s bill to end the ban on Medicare negotiating lower prescription drug prices for Medicare’s 50 million seniors, introduced during his tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives, were incorporated into the Inflation Reduction Act.  

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