Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California introduced legislation that codifies President Trump’s recent executive order on “Delivering Most-Favored-Nation Prescription Drug Pricing to American Patients.”
“Today, I am introducing legislation to codify President Trump's executive order, ensuring Americans do not pay more than people in other countries for drugs,” Khanna said on X, sharing his speech on the House floor. “Will Congress members stand with $16 billion in Big Pharma money, or with the American people by co-sponsoring this bipartisan legislation?”
This is a courageous undertaking. By a Democrat no less. #MAHA https://t.co/GFbVJOHVB5
— NV Republican Club (@NRCGOPClub) May 15, 2025
Khanna indicated over the weekend that the only way to get around Big Pharma challenging the EO is by making it a law - a point he emphasized in his floor speech.
“So you ask, ‘Why do you need the legislation?’ Because the reality is that Big Pharma will sue for the executive order, like they did in the previous Trump administration,” Khanna said. “And in the previous administration, they managed to kill the executive order. The only way we can stand up to Big Pharma is to codify in legislation what the president wants to do in an executive order.”
I support @realDonaldTrump effort to ensure Americans do not pay more for drugs than those in other countries. But instead of an EO that will get challenged again by Big Pharma, why not work with @BernieSanders & me to make this law! https://t.co/ydXvrv1y1v
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) May 12, 2025
A White House fact sheet explains key elements of President Trump's executive order:
- The Order directs the U.S. Trade Representative and Secretary of Commerce to take action to ensure foreign countries are not engaged in practices that purposefully and unfairly undercut market prices and drive price hikes in the United States.
- The Order instructs the Administration to communicate price targets to pharmaceutical manufacturers to establish that America, the largest purchaser and funder of prescription drugs in the world, gets the best deal.
- The Secretary of Health and Human Services will establish a mechanism through which American patients can buy their drugs directly from manufacturers who sell to Americans at a “Most-Favored-Nation” price, bypassing middlemen.
- If drug manufacturers fail to offer most-favored-nation pricing, the Order directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to: (1) propose rules that impose most-favored-nation pricing; and (2) take other aggressive measures to significantly reduce the cost of prescription drugs to the American consumer and end anticompetitive practices.
“In case after case, our citizens pay massively higher prices than other nations pay for the same exact pill, from the same factory, effectively subsidizing socialism [abroad] with skyrocketing prices at home," Trump said. "So we would spend tremendous amounts of money in order to provide inexpensive drugs to another country. And when I say the price is different, you can see some examples where the price is beyond anything — four times, five times different.”
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