I believe there is work to be done. Yes, ma'am.

Last year, Senator Enzi and I wrote and passed new legislation strengthening GINA protections so that personally identifiable genetic information collected through Federal research can never be made public.

So we are not there now.

Telling people it will cost you $1,500 if you do not reveal very sensitive medical information, I think, stretches the bounds of what constitutes voluntary.

Well, we have been tested on that numerous times and were never accused of discrimination during the 10-year life of the program.

I do not think anybody in this room thinks that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or the City of Omaha, Nebraska should be left by themselves to defend against a sophisticated cyber adversary like Russia.

So this is some really sensitive information, and it is supposed to be voluntary to hand it over.

There are recommended standards. Yes, ma'am.

The consumer should decide when to release that credit record information to others.

The law says five, 5 years of exclusivity, but drug companies game the system.

Another market solution is negotiation. If the Federal Government were allowed to negotiate more competitive drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries, then prices would come down.

How about the Federal Government competing and actually having some competition and saying, 'We're going to negotiate prices.'

I looked it up, and the organizations who are testifying here today spent a combined total of $30 million lobbying Congress last year.

Your industry isn't based on competitive markets. It's based on totally artificial taxpayer granted monopolies.

If the restrictions that prevent purchasers from importing the exact same drugs at lower prices from places like Canada were removed, we'd see some real competition, and we'd see some lower prices.

taxpayers watch when we've granted exclusivity to these companies, and then they watch as the prices go up, and there's not a darned thing for taxpayers to do about it. This is just fundamentally wrong.

But drug competition from Canada, price negotiation, are market solutions. They're not government mandates.

I have introduced the FREE Act with Senator Schatz and more than a dozen other Senators.

consumers should be able to control their own data, and without consumer control, credit reporting companies really have no reason to treat us well.

The high cost of prescription drugs is a huge problem. Let's talk about the best way to tackle this public health crisis.

If companies like Equifax do not pay us to sell our information to other people, then we should not have to pay them to stop selling it.

So you would be in favor of drug importation from any place that's not doing what you call price control?

The credit reporting agency is a threat to each of us personally, but it is also a threat to our national security.

I ask unanimous consent that Senator Crapo and I both be allowed to speak for 5 minutes on the nomination of Randal Quarles. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Without objection, it is so ordered.

every time President Trump has the choice between standing up for American families or standing up for wealthy banks and giant corporations, he chooses the rich guys. Time and again, he has promised that he would ``never be beholden to the…