PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Apr 11, 2016
Contact Lens Consumer Health Protection Act of 2016
This bill amends the Fairness to Contact Lens Consumers Act to require contact lens sellers to provide a toll-free telephone number and email address that prescribers can use to ask questions about a seller's prescription verification request.
Under current law, a prescription is considered verified if the prescriber fails to communicate with the seller within eight business hours after receiving the seller-provided verification information. The bill requires the prescription to be considered unverified until the seller obtains affirmative confirmation of the accuracy of the prescription from the prescriber in cases where a prescriber communicates a question or concern about the accuracy or verification of the prescription to a seller through the toll-free telephone service or email address before the end of that eight-hour period.
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
The bill removes the Federal Trade Commission's authority to adjust the eight-hour period.
If a prescriber communicates a question or concern about the accuracy of a prescription before the deadline: (1) the seller shall not fill the prescription, and (2) the prescriber shall provide the seller with an accurate prescription.
Sellers must offer prescribers different communication methods that the prescribers may select as their preferred method for verification requests.
The bill allows a seller to alter a prescription only if: (1) a private label contact lens is included on the prescription and the same contact lens is manufactured by the same company and sold under multiple labels to individual providers; and (2) the seller fills the prescription with a contact lens of exactly the same material, design, and power as manufactured by that company under another label.
Sellers must maintain a database of the issuance and expiration dates of each prescription they receive. The bill prohibits advertisements representing that a contact lens prescription may be filled after the prescription expires.
Sellers violating certain prescriber verification requirements are subject to increased penalties of up to $40,000 per violation. Such requirements apply to all contact lens sales in the United States, notwithstanding where the seller is located.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must examine the potentially adverse effects of seller violations on consumers.
People & committees
Sen. Cassidy, Bill [R-LA] · R–LA
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.
Source last updated: Sep 8, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
AI Conversation Starters
Choose a perspective, copy a prompt, and paste it into your preferred AI. Each prompt includes the bill version and available official source links, and asks for counterarguments as well as supporting evidence.
Analyze S.2777 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
Examine S.2777 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.
Examine S.2777 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.
Examine S.2777 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.