Congress

House Democrats are considering celebrating the upcoming 10th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act by voting on legislation to strengthen former President Barack Obama’s signature law, and in turn sending a pre-election message that Democrats will work to protect Americans’ health benefits, according to a well-placed lobbyist.

Beneficiary advocates say they anticipated Republicans would try to make up $1.5 trillion or so spent on the 2017 tax cuts in 2017 by reducing spending on entitlement programs, and so they were not surprised the president seemingly broke from his earlier pledges to protect Medicare and suggested during a Wednesday interview that changes to entitlement programs would come out toward the end of the year if he wins another term.

Executives of the top five e-cigarette manufacturers will testify before the House Energy & Commerce oversight subcommittee on Feb. 5, E&C Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and oversight subcommittee Chair Diana DeGette (D-CO) announced Wednesday (Jan. 22).

House Education & Labor Committee Democrats are gathering information from the Department of Labor that could lay the foundation for legislative action to bolster the federal government’s enforcement of mental health parity law when it comes to employer-sponsored plans.

Heading into 2020, third-party medical device servicers will focus on two key issues: extending right-to-repair laws to medical devices, and addressing cybersecurity on older medical devices, industry representatives told Inside Health Policy.

FDA Deputy Director of Regulatory Programs Doug Throckmorton assured lawmakers during a recent hearing that the agency doesn’t need more authority from Congress to regulate cannabidiol (CBD) products.

A group of laboratories and clinicians filed a citizen petition challenging FDA’s attempts to stop labs from providing physicians with genetic test data that assess a patient's risk of an adverse response or likelihood to respond to a given drug.

States want HHS and Congress to allow them to use grants aimed at curbing the opioid crisis to also tackle other drugs that are prevalent in their regions, including cocaine and methamphetamine, as lawmakers call on HHS to explain how it is responding to a rise in the use of stimulants.

The House Energy & Commerce health subcommittee will consider six cannabis-focused bills, including one that already passed the House Judiciary Committee, during a Wednesday (Jan. 15) hearing on cannabis policies, according to a memo E&C Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ) sent to subcommittee members and staff on Friday (Jan. 10).