Grassley
Direct
I
spoke
with
Maureen
Olsen
of
the
Neola
Gazette
and
Dennis
Morrice
of
KLEM
Radio
about
mental
health
reforms
and
legislation,
debates
in
Iowa,
Mylan's
overcharging
Medicaid
for
EpiPens,
follow-up
from
the
hearing
on
ag
mergers,
feedback
from
Iowans
on
the
Supreme
Court
nomination
and
the
presidential
and
vice
presidential
debates.
Quick
Links
A
bill
I
championed
to
assist
survivors
of
sexual
assault
became
law
this
week.
The
Survivors’
Bill
of
Rights
ensures
that
evidence
from
sexual
assault
crimes
is
both
collected
and
preserved
so
that
survivors
have
the
best
possible
shot
at
justice.
I
worked
with
a
young
survivor,
Amanda
Nguyen,
to
get
this
bill
on
the
books
so
we
can
improve
the
chances
of
catching
perpetrators
and
help
survivors
find
closure.
Immigration
and
Customs
Enforcement
never
detained
and
never
started
deportation
proceedings
for
an
undocumented
immigrant
with
a
violent
and
criminal
background
who
lied
to
Border
Patrol
agents
to
avoid
removal.
He
ended
up
killing
five
people,
four
of
them
Iowans,
while
in
the
United
States.
I
am
seeking
answers
from
the
Obama
Administration
on
why
he
wasn't
a
priority
for
immigration
enforcement.
More
than
two
weeks
ago
I
started
looking
into
whether
Mylan
was
overcharging
taxpayers
for
EpiPens
due
to
misclassification under
the
Medicaid
Drug
Rebate
Program.
According
to
the
Centers
for
Medicare
and
Medicaid
Services,
EpiPens
were
misclassified, meaning
Mylan
should
have
been
paying
a
23.1
percent rebate
to
Medicaid
when
it
has
been
paying
only
13
percent.
My
staff
and
I
examined
how
much
Mylan's
revenue
has
increased
from
charging
taxpayers
in
the
last
few
years. Our
analysis
found
that
Medicare
and
Medicaid
charges
for
EpiPens
increased
463
percent from
2011
to
2015.
This
week I sent a
letter with
three
other
congressional
committee
chairmen to
the
Department
of
Justice
with
questions about
the
FBI’s
agreement
to
severely
limit
its
searches
of
Secretary
Clinton’s
senior
advisors’
laptops
during
the investigation
of her
non-government email
server.
In
the
course
of reviewing some immunity
agreements
related
to
the
investigation, the
committees
learned
that the FBI also
inexplicably agreed
to
destroy
laptops
that
were
subject
to
congressional
subpoena.
My
regional
director
for
the
Davenport
area
will
be
holding
open
office
hours
across
southeastern
Iowa
and
will
be
available
to
take
questions,
comments
and
concerns
about
federal
issues
from
Iowans.
Post
of
the
Week
|