The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the nomination of Gail Slater to be chief of the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division in a 20-2 vote on Feb. 27. The Antitrust Division has significant authority to investigate and litigate consolidation and anticompetitive concerns across the economy, including in health care, and Slater has experience as an attorney for the FTC where she worked on several merger cases. In Slater's initial nomination hearing on Feb. 12, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) brought up the effect PBMs have on high drug prices and their consolidation.
In addition, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing on Feb. 25 to consider the nomination of Mark Meador to be a member of the Federal Trade Commission. Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) as well as Sens. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) sought commitments from Meador that he would keep up the pressure on PBMs.
In response to Sen. Luján's questioning, Meador said, “If confirmed, I can absolutely commit to ensuring we're enforcing the competition laws across the entire health care space." Meador has written about the need to crack down on PBM practices, including a 2011 piece that was cited in arguments in the landmark PCMA v. Mulready case. Meador's committee vote has not yet been scheduled.
