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ChampionedPrescription Drug Prices

Promised at the start of her Senate term to work to reduce the cost of prescription drugs for Minnesotans, an ongoing commitment reflected in legislation to increase drug-price transparency and let Medicare negotiate prices.

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ChampionedFact-checker reviewConfidence: 87%

Adversarial re-verification confirms the CHAMPIONED rating. All three cited PRIMARY sources are reachable and support the claimed outcome, and every quote appears verbatim. Source 1 (smith.senate.gov, Affordable Medications Act) confirms Smith "introduced legislation" as lead sponsor (Klobuchar is a supporter, not co-lead), and the bill contains both vehicles named in the promise verbatim: "Increasing transparency, holding pharmaceutical companies accountable for their role in setting high prices" and "allowing Medicare to use its buying power to negotiate lower prices," tied to the Minnesotans quote — establishing genuine authorship/leadership on exactly the promise's elements. Source 3 confirms she authored a drug-cost bill signed into law ("based on Smith's Modernizing Therapeutic Equivalence Rating Determination Act," speeding lower-cost generics via FDA therapeutic-equivalence evaluations). Source 2 confirms she voted Yea on the IRA (Vote #325, Aug 7, 2022) enacting Medicare negotiation. The leadership bar (authored/led, not merely voted) is clearly met, so CHAMPIONED is warranted over FULL/PARTIAL. One minor, immaterial inaccuracy: the rationale describes the roll call as "51-50," while the senator tally is 50-50 with the VP breaking the tie (51-50 counting the VP) — this does not affect the outcome. Confidence held below 0.9 because the flagship Affordable Medications Act itself did not become law and the enacted Medicare-negotiation policy came via a vote rather than a Smith-authored statute, but the sustained leadership evidence on this exact promise is solid.

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