Lower Costs for Everyday Americans Act

Who is affected and how:

• Consumers: Will see new safety protections (sodium nitrite ban) and clearer upfront pricing for hotels and short‑term rentals; buyers of micromobility devices may benefit from stronger battery safety standards and future hazard reporting. Retailers and online marketplaces will need to remove/stop selling covered sodium nitrite consumer products and update pricing displays.

• Health care providers and hospitals: Small rural hospitals receive grants and technical assistance to compile maternity cost data; all hospitals may be affected by State study requests. Community health centers, National Health Service Corps sites, and teaching health centers receive extended funding, which supports service delivery and workforce programs.

• Medicare Advantage enrollees and providers: Plans must verify and maintain accurate provider directories more frequently, protect enrollees from higher cost sharing due to incorrect directory entries, perform annual accuracy analyses, and publicly post accuracy scores; providers will have new verification expectations and must coordinate with plans.

• Employers, group health plans, and PBMs: Group health plan sponsors will receive standardized, detailed PBM reports on drug pricing, rebates, and spread; PBMs must enable information sharing and comply with privacy rules and reporting deadlines; employers and plan fiduciaries will use the data for oversight and contracting decisions.

• Federal agencies and the tech/telecom sector: NTIA gains two new offices and associated staff/leadership responsibilities for spectrum and international affairs, affecting federal spectrum policy, coordination with the FCC and State Dept., and international representation at bodies like the ITU; telecommunications firms and spectrum users may experience updated coordination processes.

• Environmental and municipal actors: EPA reporting and pilot grant programs aim to expand recycling capacity, especially in underserved communities; municipalities and recycling service providers could receive grants or need to supply data.

• Manufacturers, importers, and distributors: Chemical suppliers (sodium nitrite), battery and micromobility manufacturers, PBMs, and lodging platforms must change product lines, labeling, safety features, contracting, or online displays to comply with bans, safety standards, transparency requirements, and reporting rules.

• States and HHS: States must conduct maternity cost studies and submit data to HHS; HHS must aggregate and report data nationwide and administer grants—HHS receives specified funds to implement those tasks. Some scheduling/administrative burdens on State agencies are created, though Congress provided specific small appropriations and program funding.

Overall, the bill mixes regulatory bans, consumer‑protection rules, data and transparency requirements, organizational changes in Commerce/NTIA, targeted grant funding for environmental and health activities, and multiple health‑program authorizations. Compliance tasks fall mainly on manufacturers, platform operators, PBMs, Medicare Advantage plans, hospitals and State health agencies, while federal agencies (EPA, CPSC, FTC, NTIA, HHS/CMS) are assigned rulemaking, reporting, grantmaking, and oversight responsibilities.