Congress’ first 100 days

The one truth a new Trump Administration and a Republican Congress represents is change, and for some, that spells opportunity.

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That’s exactly how the Council for Responsible Nutrition feels as the trade organization embarks on an ambitious policy agenda over the next few months, with plans to meet with each of the more than 60 freshman members of Congress. “We make a commitment every Congress to get to all the new members in the first 100 days,” Steve Mister, president and CEO of CRN, told Drug Store News. Following is a rundown on what purveyors of supplement and nutrition products can expect from CRN in the coming year.

DSN: In the first 100 days of Congress, what will you be sharing with legislatures?

Steve Mister: We will be talking to them about the benefits of the products; about the economic study we did last summer that shows the value the industry brings to local community [and] cost savings; [and] how the use of supplements saves the health system money; to demonstrate the benefits of products. That leads us to the Dietary Supplement Caucus, which is one of the “asks” we have in those meetings is to join the caucus. The caucus will host briefings throughout the year to constantly educate members of Congress and their staff.

DSN: Which are the key legislative issues that may play out this year?

Steve Mister: This year, we’re focused on trying to get multivitamins included in the SNAP program. The Farm Bill will come up for reauthorization in 2018, and that’s when they’ll reauthorize the food stamp program. We have to start work on that now; we can’t wait until 2018. We’ve got a lot of opportunity this year to build that position, talking about why low-income people need to have access to multivitamins. We really need to give these people options. We’ve talked to retailers about this, and they’re very interested in this — it allows chain drug stores and retailers to [position] their stores as health centers.

DSN: With Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., set to assume command of Health and Human Services, how does that selection sit with the VMS industry?

Steve Mister: That’s a good choice for the industry. … One of the things we’ve been working on is trying to get dietary supplements included in flex spending and health savings accounts. As we look at the Trump administration, the combination of re-examining ACA and the fact they say they’re going to do tax reform are real opportunities for us to get HSAs into the legislation.

DSN: What does an ACA rollback mean for the VMS industry?

Steve Mister: The rollback of ACA isn’t going to have a big impact on us from a legal policy standpoint, except, one of the initiatives we’ve been working on for several years is trying to get dietary supplements included in flex spending and healthcare savings accounts. If you remember, it was ACA that took that away from over-the-counter medicines [and] since 2010, Obamacare became the third rail for Democrats — nobody would touch it. The moment we started talking about including dietary supplements in FSAs and HSAs, they would bristle. They didn’t want to do anything that looked like they were undermining the President’s healthcare plan. Now that that’s no longer a sacred cow, and the fact that we’re going to do some serious tax reform, we’ve got a real opportunity in this Congress to talk about FSAs and HSAs and actually get it done.