COMMERCE COMMITTEE ADVANCES CAPITO LEGISLATION

Press Release

U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, today voted during a committee markup to advance several of her legislative priorities: the NOTAM Improvement Act and the Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act. Both pieces of legislation were approved and can now be considered and voted on by the full Senate.

The NOTAM Improvement Act:

Senator Capito introduced the NOTAM Improvement Act in January 2023 to help prevent future Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) system outages. Specifically, the legislation would require the FAA to establish a task force to strengthen the resiliency and cybersecurity of the NOTAM system, which alerts pilots of safety and location hazards on flight routes. The task force would make actionable recommendations to the head of the FAA to improve the system and be composed of representatives from air carriers, airports, and airline pilot, aircraft dispatcher, and FAA personnel unions, as well as aviation safety and cybersecurity experts. Learn more here.

"The system failure that grounded all flights earlier this year cannot happen again, and I am proud to join my colleagues Senators Klobuchar and Moran in advancing our legislation that will prevent similar outages in the future. The NOTAM Improvement Act creates a taskforce of experts to develop specific improvements for this critical system, and I'm pleased to see it take a major step forward today in passing the Senate Commerce Committee. I encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, in both chambers, to join our efforts and get this legislation to the president's desk as soon as possible," Senator Capito said.

The Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act:

The Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act, which Senator Capito co-sponsored, aims to ban deceptive unfair pricing schemes, prohibit arbitrary claw backs of payments made to pharmacies, and require Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) to report to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) how much money they make through spread pricing and pharmacy fees. Learn more here.

"My work over the past several years on the impact PBMs are having on pharmacies in so many of our communities opened my eyes to the role these industry middlemen play in rising prescription drug prices," Senator Capito said. "It is essential we bring additional transparency to this industry and prevent deceptive or unfair practices which lead to higher drug prices for consumers and pharmacies closing their doors. The Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act will assist in this effort, and I'm glad to see it move closer to becoming law."

During her time in the Senate, Senator Capito has repeatedly acted to protect consumers and small businesses by holding PBMs accountable. In addition to the Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act, Senator Capito also joined in the reintroduction of the Prescription Pricing for the People Act, and has previously sponsored legislation and led a number of letters to the current and previous administrations.

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