WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Thursday to give the Department of Health and Human Services at least $1 million to issue regulations requiring that prescription drug advertisements include information about the price of the medicine.
Senators agreed to attach the provision, sponsored by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), to a major spending bill, through a process reserved for noncontroversial items to which no lawmaker objects. The spending bill passed by a vote of 85-7.
It remains unclear whether or how the provision might reach the president’s desk, since the House has been working on a separate version of the spending bill that does not contain the drug pricing policy, and congressional leaders haven’t settled on their exact appropriations strategy for the coming fiscal year.
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