OSPIRG Federal Lobby Day: Bills in Congress would tackle microplastic pollution and health care price transparency

On April 10th, our national network held a federal lobby day and met with over 70 congressional legislators and staff to urge bipartisan support for microplastic-free waters and more transparency in our health care system. OSPIRG and Environment Oregon, met with the offices of both of our state senators – Senator Merkley and Senator Wyden – as well as the offices of Representatives Bonamici, Hoyle, Chavez-DeRemer, Blumenauer, and Salinas. Primarily, OSPIRG lobbied for two bills: the Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act (H.R. 7634/S.2337) and the Healthcare PRICE Transparency Act (S3548). 

The Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act would ban the discharge of nurdles from facilities and sources that produce, use, package, and transport them. Nurdles are lentil sized plastic pellets that are the raw material for plastic production.The act was introduced by Senator Durbin from Illinois and Representatives Levin (CA) and Peltola (AK).

Nurdles pose a threat to marine wildlife, who can mistake the plastic pellets as food and starve to death if they eat enough. Nurdles absorb toxic chemicals that pollute our waterways and make their way up the food chain to impact human health. 18,000 nurdles have been collected on Oregon beaches. 

We also discussed the Healthcare PRICE Transparency Act with Senators Merkley and Wyden’s staff. There are many problems with the United States healthcare system. We spend more than any other country and yet have some of the worst outcomes among developed countries. Price transparency isn’t a cure-all for this, but it’s an essential part of fixing the system more broadly. 

The proposed bill will improve healthcare financial transparency by codifying and strengthening hospital transparency rules set out in 2019, expanding the law beyond hospitals to imaging and surgical centers and labs, and enhancing the government’s capacity to monitor and enforce the transparency laws. Both Senator Wyden and Merkley’s offices strongly support the bill.

Both the Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act and the Healthcare PRICE Transparency Act would make for a healthier Oregon by keeping microplastics out of our waterways and improving our healthcare system.