Rochester Today – Gil Gutkneckt is Now a Lobbyist

Former Congressman Gil Gutkneckt has become a lobbyist.

During one of his semi-regular appearances on the Rochester Today show with Andy Brownell on KROC-AM, Gil described how he ended up becoming a licensed lobbyist at the U.S. Capitol eight years after he left Congress.

During his years representing Minnesota's First District, Gutknecht was often highly critical of "Big Pharma," and his new lobbying gig has him pitted against the major pharmaceutical companies once again.

He has joined forces with an organization known as Safety Net Hospitals for Pharmaceutical Access. It's a nonprofit group formed to fight a push by the pharmaceutical industry to strip so-called "Safety Net" hospitals of the discounts they receive on purchases of prescription medications through what is known as the 340B program.

Gil says the program provides the hospitals with billions of dollars in savings while they serve low-income, uninsured and other vulnerable populations. He notes many of the Safety Net hospitals are located in smaller communities in rural areas of the U.S.