This Week In Springfield, committee work continued in earnest as the Senate Committee Deadline approaches next week and the House Committee deadline the following week, March 12th – assuming the schedule is not changed by either chamber.
| INTERCHANGE FEES PHARMACY 1 PHARMACY 2 MENU LABELING STATE BUDGET |
INTERCHANGE FEES
The battle of interchange fees may be coming to Springfield in the very near future. A major credit card company has positioned a bill, S.B. 3578 (Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, D- Evanston), in the anticipation of trying to amend it. During the Senate Consumer Protection Committee,the sponsor directly stated that representatives of VISA had asked him to position a bill that could receive language limiting the recovery of interchange fees by retailers. Such a proposal is designed to try and thwart the credit card companies exposure in a Federal lawsuit just beginning in New York. It has been alleged that the credit card companies have colluded to keep the interchange fees artificially high to the detriment of the retailer and their customers.
Retailers are charged interchange fees by credit card companies every time a consumer swipes their credit card. These fees can total as much as 4% and are applied to the entire ticket, including taxes. Under the current contract with the credit card companies, retailers are prohibited from recovering any VISA-imposed fees from the consumer.
VISA wants the State of Illinois to codify this restriction as part of their legal strategy.
The lawsuit in New York offers the presiding judge a laundry list of possible remedies. One of the remedies he could order were he to rule against the credit card companies is that retailers could directly recover the fees from consumers. The credit card companies are trying to get Illinois to pass a prohibition into law so their lawyers can use it to dissuade the judge from potentially selecting that option. The credit card companies do not want consumers to know just how much they are unilaterally imposing on every charge a consumer makes. After IRMA offered testimony on the general subject area, the members of the Senate Consumer Protection Committee expressed ubstantial concern with the proposal and the bill was held in the committee pending a substantive amendment.
PHARMACY 1
S.B. 2552 (Sen. Iris Martinez, D- Chicago) would require pharmacies to stock a representative sample of every kind of pharmaceutical as well as require a pharmacist to dispense any medicine regardless of the pharmacists right of conscience. Senator Martinez convened a subject-matter only hearing of the Senate Licensed Activities Committee to hear from all interested parties. IRMA President David F. Vite testified on behalf of retail pharmacies noting that the proposal would impose significant costs on retail pharmacies. For example, a pharmacy in a geographic area serving a largely elderly population would be required to stock a representative sample of every type of birth control medicines. In addition to the increased inventory costs, every retail pharmacy in the State would experience substantial build-out costs in order to accommodate the mandated inventory.
PHARMACY 2
H.B. 5517 (Rep. Rosemary Mulligan, R- Des Plaines) seeks to amend the Pharmacy Practice Act to do three things, all related to generic drugs. First, if a prescriber prescribes a specific generic drug, then the pharmacist may not dispense a generic drug with a different active pharmaceutical ingredient. Second, if a pharmacist receives verbal approval from the patient, then the pharmacist may dispense another generic drug with the same active pharmaceutical ingredient as the generic drug originally prescribed. Third, if the prescribe changes a patient’s prescription to a generic drug other than the specific drug that was originally prescribed, the pharmacist must verbally notify the patient of this change at the time of dispensing and advise the patient of his/her right to refuse the change. While the House Human Services Committee approved H.B. 5517 for further consideration by the full House, Rep. Mulligan agreed to work with IRMA to try and make the proposal workable.
MENU LABELING
After substantial discussions with IRMA, Rep. Mary Flowers (D- Chicago) agreed to hold both H.B. 5036 and H.R. 262 in the House Consumer Protection Committee for the remainder of session. In return, IRMA agreed to work with Rep. Flowers to write a resolution that would recognize the significant strides many restaurants and grocery stores have made in the area of menu labeling, encourage those who have not followed suit to do so, and encourage the industry to continue to make as much information available as possible, through various channels, as soon as possible. IRMA agreed to transmit the resolution to its members. This represented a substantial concession on the part of Rep. Flowers and we would like to thank her for her willingness to discuss and consider all sides of the issue.
The other menu labeling bill, H.B. 5419(Rep. Deborah Mell, D- Chicago), could be heard in the House Human Services Committee any time before the current committee deadline of March 12th.
STATE BUDGET
Governor Pat Quinn officially unveils his proposed Fiscal Year 2011 budget during his annual Budget Address on Wednesday, March 10th. This week, he activated Budget Illinois.gov. This website compares the current Fiscal Year to the estimate for FY 2011 in terms of revenue performance and expectations, appropriations and recommended appropriations, and other budget information. Additionally, citizens can provide suggestions as to changes they believe should be reflected in the State budget.
Rob Karr, Senior Vice President
Government & Member Relations
