Important News from this week:

• Exciting news – The Look Rock Picnic Area in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has been reopened. The site was closed in 2013 after the water utility systems failed.
• Thirteen Tennessee hospitals were designated as “high performing” in the U.S. News and World Report’s 2019-2020 Best Hospital Rankings.
• The United States Senate voted to pass a bipartisan budget agreement that will fund our national defense and other important Tennessee priorities. The bill is now headed to President Trump’s desk for his signature.

Voting to fund national defense, national laboratories, national parks and the National Institutes of Health

This week, I voted for and the U.S. Senate passed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019, which will help fund our national defense, national laboratories like the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, national parks like the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This type of spending – discretionary spending – is under control and is not the part of the federal budget that is driving our $22 trillion federal debt. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), discretionary spending has risen at about the rate of inflation the past 10 years, and is projected to continue to rise at about the rate of inflation over the next 10 years. The real driver of our out-of-control federal debt is mandatory or entitlement spending – which is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and interest, and is projected to account for 78 percent of all federal spending in 2029. Congress cannot balance the budget with cuts to discretionary spending. We should consider a plan like the Fiscal Sustainability Act, which Senator Corker and I introduced last Congress, to reduce the growth of entitlement spending by nearly $1 trillion over 10 years. The problem was that Senator Corker and I were the only cosponsors. Take a look at the below chart to see a visual representation of our federal government’s runaway spending, compared to our stable discretionary spending.

The above chart illustrates all federal spending over the last 10 years and the projected spending for the next 10 years. Discretionary spending (blue line), is under control. Mandatory spending (red line), is causing the out-of-control federal debt.

Three Senate committees approved legislation to lower health care costs

I often recommend that Tennesseans look at the United States Congress as if it were a split screen television set. Here’s what I mean by that: during the last month amid Washington’s turmoil – Trump vs. The Squad, Mueller testifying, impeachment votes, battles over the border – three Senate committees, including the Senate health committee I chair, approved more than 80 bipartisan proposals from at least 75 senators to reduce the cost of the health care that Americans pay for out of their own pockets. Legislation to end surprise medical bills, increase transparency, and lower prescription drug costs is looking like a train that will get to the station when Congress reconvenes in September.

On June 26, after 17 hearings, six months of work, and recommendations from over 400 experts, my health committee voted 20-3 to recommend to the full Senate 55 proposals from 65 senators. For more information on what my legislation will do to lower the cost of what you pay for your health care, click here. I look forward to continuing to work with my Senate colleagues through August, and develop a package that can be voted on by the full U.S. Senate, so we can bring a real result to our state that will affect virtually everyone in Tennessee.

Middle Tennessee Boulevard will make a great first impression at MTSU

Yesterday, I spoke at the opening of Middle Tennessee Boulevard, which runs along Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. Middle Tennessee Boulevard creates a great first impression for a great university. According to landscape architecture professor Phillip Waite, most prospective students decide within ten minutes of being on campus whether the college they’re visiting will stay on their list based on how it looks. Roughly half of Davidson County high school graduates attend MTSU. In addition, half of all MTSU students are the first in their family to attend college and over 40 percent graduated in the top 25 percent of their high school. MTSU has proven over the last few years that it is committed to high academic standards and helping students complete their degrees. This new entrance will help attract even more students. Congratulations to MTSU President McPhee and Murfreesboro Mayor Shane McFarland – their leadership has helped make this possible.

Reopening Look Rock Picnic Area in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Exciting news – the Great Smoky Mountains National Park reopened the Look Rock Picnic Area to the public! The site was closed in 2013 after the water utility systems failed. Unfortunately, too many of our national parks are in bad shape. That’s why I was glad to introduce the Restore Our Parks Act, which would cut in half the maintenance backlog at our national parks and help restore our 419 national parks so Americans can enjoy them.

The Trump Administration is working to reduce cost of prescription drugs and help you know the price of your health care

This week, the Trump Administration took several important actions that will address the high prices Tennesseans often pay for health care. First, the administration released a proposal to give patients more information about hospital prices. This step by the administration to help patients know better what they are paying for health care services is complementary to several provisions in the legislation I introduced to reduce the cost of health care. Simply put, you can’t reduce the cost of what you pay for health care until you know the price of health care. We will carefully review how the proposed rule and our legislation interact.

Second, the administration released a plan for allowing the safe importation of foreign drugs from Canada to reduce what Americans pay out of their own pockets for treatment. This is the first administration to take concrete steps to allow importation of prescription drugs to reduce their costs, and I welcome it. The key for me is whether this plan preserves the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) gold standard for safety and effectiveness. Millions of Americans every day buy prescription drugs relying on the FDA’s guarantee of quality.  

Below are some articles from this week I thought you would enjoy:

The Colombia Daily Herald: Column by Sen. Lamar Alexander: Cut entitlements, not defense

WKRN-ABC Nashville Channel 2: Governor Lee on western swing looking for Tennessee jobs

Associated Press: US to set up plan allowing prescription meds from Canada

Listen to the Farm Bureau.

#240 in Lamar Alexander’s Little Plaid Book