{"database": "openregs", "table": "congressional_record", "rows": [["CREC-2025-01-16-pt1-PgS197-5", "2025-01-16", 119, 1, null, null, "LEGISLATIVE SESSION", "SENATE", "SENATE", "SLEGISLATIVE", "S197", "S197", "[{\"name\": \"Chuck Grassley\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}]", "[{\"congress\": \"119\", \"type\": \"S\", \"number\": \"5\"}]", "171 Cong. Rec. S197", "Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 9 (Thursday, January 16, 2025)\n\n[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 9 (Thursday, January 16, 2025)]\n[Senate]\n[Page S197]\nFrom the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]\n\n                          LEGISLATIVE SESSION\n\n                                 ______\n\n                        LAKEN RILEY ACT--Resumed\n\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will\nresume consideration of S. 5, which the clerk will report.\n  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:\n\n       A bill (S. 5) to require the Secretary of Homeland Security\n     to take into custody aliens who have been charged in the\n     United States with theft, and for other purposes.\n\n  Pending:\n\n       Thune (for Ernst/Grassley) Amendment No. 8, to include\n     crimes resulting in death or serious bodily injury to the\n     list of offenses that, if committed by an inadmissible alien,\n     require mandatory detention.\n\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.\n  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask to speak in morning business for 2\nor 3 minutes.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.\n\n                        National Pharmacists Day\n\n  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, on Sunday, January 12, it was National\nPharmacists Day. I think it is quite appropriate that we pay attention\nand give reward to the work that pharmacists do.\n  I would like to extend a warm thank-you to Iowa pharmacists for their\ndedication and for their service.\n  While we commonly know a pharmacist as someone who fills our\nprescription needs and educates us about medications, a pharmacist is\ntypically the most accessible healthcare provider, and that is\nespecially true for rural America. Do you know what? Nearly 90 percent\nof the U.S. population lives within 5 miles of a pharmacy.\n  For several Congresses, I have been leading a bipartisan effort that\nis called the Pharmacy and Medically Underserved Areas Enhancement Act.\nThis bill encourages pharmacists--only where they are licensed and\ntrained to do this--to offer healthcare services under Medicare, such\nas health and wellness screenings, immunizations, and diabetes\nmanagement. This is necessary because, for many seniors in rural areas,\nit is simply easier to get to a pharmacist than it is to get to their\nnearest doctor.\n  I also know that it is vital to protect rural pharmacists from greedy\npharmacy benefit managers who have placed unfair pressures on\npharmacies in recent years. In fact, I hear from a lot of Iowa\npharmacists that if we don't do something about pharmacy benefit\nmanagers, we are going to continue to lose pharmacies in the small\ncommunities of rural America and particularly Iowa.\n  So, since 2018, I and about 65 or 70 of my colleagues have been\ntrying to hold PBMs accountable and do that through legislation--about\nthree different pieces of legislation--so that we can lower\nprescription drug prices and, in turn, keep our rural pharmacies in\nbusiness. We want to do this through transparency because nobody knows\nwhat PBMs do. It is an opaque operation; yet they make up our\nformularies. Do they help big pharmaceutical companies or do they help\nthe consumer? We don't know, and we need to do that. So I hope this\nCongress will move on some legislation to make what PBMs do transparent\nbecause with transparency comes accountability.\n  I am going to keep fighting for our pharmacists and our consumers.\n  I yield the floor.\n\n                   Recognition of the Majority Leader\n\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader is recognized.\n\n                          ____________________"]], "columns": ["granule_id", "date", "congress", "session", "volume", "issue", "title", "chamber", "granule_class", "sub_granule_class", "page_start", "page_end", "speakers", "bills", "citation", "full_text"], "primary_keys": ["granule_id"], "primary_key_values": ["CREC-2025-01-16-pt1-PgS197-5"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 12.284978060051799, "source": "Federal Register API & Regulations.gov API", "source_url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/developers/api/v1", "license": "Public Domain (U.S. Government data)", "license_url": "https://www.regulations.gov/faq"}