February 25, 2026

Dear Senator,

On February 26, 2026, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will meet for an executive session to consider six pieces of legislation, including S. 3315, the Health Care Cybersecurity and Resiliency Act of 2025.  On behalf of the more than one million members and supporters of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), I urge you to oppose amendments that may be offered by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to S. 3315 or any of the other bills.

Sen. Sanders’ Amendment #5 would force the adoption of international reference pricing, Amendment #6 would ban direct to consumer (DTC) advertising, and Amendment #7, would impose private market price controls on prescription drugs.  None of these amendments are related to cybersecurity and all would move the U.S. closer to government-run healthcare.

Codifying Most Favored Nation policies that would import price controls from countries with socialized medicine will lead to shortages, disrupt markets, slow medical innovation, threaten American jobs, fail to stop foreign freeriding on American research and development, and have a disastrous effect on patients.  An August 2022 University of Chicago issue brief found that price controls would increase healthcare spending by $50.8 billion over the next 20 years and lead to 135 fewer drugs, which will negatively impact 2.47 million patients.  Many of these arguments were cited in a February 12, 2026, coalition letter signed by 52 organizations including CCAGW.

Amendment #7, which would ban DTC ads, would harm transparency in the marketplace, decrease competition, especially for smaller companies, and reduce the education consumers receive about their options.  It would also give more power to the government to determine which drugs would be available for patients.

For these reasons, I urge you to oppose any attempt to adopt international reference pricing, codify MFN price controls, and ban DTC advertising.  Supporting Sen. Sanders’ amendments would be a victory for supporters of government-run healthcare.

Sincerely,

Tom Schatz
President, CCAGW