Category: US House of Representatives

Activists on both sides of abortion issue protest across the US

Antiabortion groups have called demonstrations at more than 200 Planned Parenthood locations throughout the United States on Saturday to urge Congress and President Donald Trump to strip the women’s health provider of federal funding. Antiabortion activists have said they were energized by the election of Republican Trump, who selected their long-time ally Mike Pence as vice president and nominated conservative jurist Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Tom Price as HHS Secretary: A Disaster for U.S. Health Care

The Senate’s vote to confirm Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., as secretary of health and human services, while widely expected, should set off national alarm bells. Price’s congressional track record, combined with his extensive health-policy paper trail, have shown him to be unabashedly pro-big-business and contemptuous of human needs – particularly when it comes to women’s and poor people’s needs.

Activists on both sides of abortion issue to protest across U.S

Anti-abortion groups have called demonstrations at more than 200 Planned Parenthood locations throughout the United States on Saturday to urge Congress and President Donald Trump to strip the women’s health provider of federal funding. Anti-abortion activists have said they were energized by the election of Republican Trump, who selected their long-time ally Mike Pence as vice president and nominated conservative jurist Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Activists on both sides of abortion issue to protest across US

Anti-abortion groups have called demonstrations at more than 200 Planned Parenthood locations throughout the United States on Saturday to urge Congress and President Donald Trump to strip the women’s health provider of federal funding. Pro-life and pro-choice activists gather at the Supreme Court for the National March for Life rally in Washington January 27, 2017.

Lowey Announces $71,137 for New York Medical College

Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey , the Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, today announced a $71,137 National Institute on Aging grant to New York Medical College to study DNA repair in ovarian aging. “Now more than ever is the time to double down on our commitment to researching and solving women’s health challenges,” said Lowey .

Members of Congress are back home and getting an earful

Mollie Drake of Gainesville, Ga., spoke about her concern for Planned Parenthood during a meeting Friday for citizens to voice their concerns to members of Congress in Greensboro. – The voter identified himself as a cancer survivor, and he had a message for Rep. Justin Amash: “I am scared to death that I will not have health insurance in the future.”

Tom Price sworn in as health and human services secretary

Rep. Tom Price of Georgia was sworn in Friday as health and human services secretary, setting the stage for the conservative to play a leading role in dismantling President Barack Obama’s health care law. Vice President Mike Pence administered the oath to Price hours after he won Senate confirmation on a narrow 52-47 vote early Friday.

Senate confirms polarizing pick for health secretary

A polarized Senate voted early Friday morning to confirm Tom Price, the conservative Georgia congressman who has been one of Congress’s most vehement opponents of the Affordable Care Act, as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. The 52-47 vote made Price the latest in a series of controversial Cabinet nominees whom the Senate’s Republican majority has been strong enough to muscle through on party-line votes.

Local woman asks Republicans to keep ACA

The Affordable Care Act [ACA] has helped to standardize health insurance plans for all Americans. All plans provide 10 essential health benefits such as preventative care services, prescription drug coverage, capped out-of-pocket expenses, no lifetime limits and coverage for individuals with pre-existing conditions.

Is GOP really softening on Obamacare?

… in Congress rethinking their opposition to the ACA in light of concerns that constituents will lose access to health care, or because of the push-back from an insurance industry troubled by uncertainty? While the challenges of dismantling the ACA …

Indiana seeks to continue Medicaid expansion program

Gov. Eric Holcomb has requested the renewal of a federal waiver that allows Indiana’s Healthy Indiana Plan 2.0 to serve hundreds of thousands of low-income Hoosiers. The request begins an eight-month process with the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that is expected to go smoothly under President Donald Trump’s administration.

Burgess leads GOP charge to undo ACA

In a delegation packed with chairmen and some of the most bombastic members of Congress, one of the quieter Texas members this week took on one of the most daunting U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, a Pilot Point Republican, led his first hearings this week to unwind the Affordable Care Act, the Democrats’ 2010 health care overhaul. But in an interview with the Texas Tribune on Wednesday, Burgess suggested his aim was not so much to unwind the landmark bill but “to fix” the overall health care system.

Could California go it alone on Obamacare?

That’s a question lawmakers might be asking residents in the months to come as President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress scurry to repeal the Affordable Care Act and scramble for a plan to replace it. One GOP-generated proposal would allow individual states to keep Obamacare-style health insurance – for a price.

Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan rejects calls to repair Obamacare

WASHINGTON In a growing rift among Republicans, Rep. Jim Jordan rejected calls by some GOP lawmakers to “repair” the 2010 health law, saying the law known as Obamacare was a “complete disaster” and needs to be swiftly and completely scrapped. During an interview Friday on Fox News, Jordan, R-Urbana said for Republicans “to say we’re going to repair something implies you can actually fix something.

Pro-Life Groups Raise Concerns About Obamacare Replacement Plans

Dozens of pro-life leaders sent a letter to Congress Thursday afternoon urging Republican senators and representatives to honor their commitment to prohibit taxpayer-funding of elective abortion coverage under any health-care bill to replace Obamacare. “Currently, any bill funding healthcare must carry restrictions on abortion funding or it will end up funding the brutal practice of abortion,” the letter states.

UTSA professor awarded grant to support research on preventing spread of Lyme disease

Janakiram Seshu, associate professor of biology and associate dean of The Graduate School at The University of Texas at San Antonio , has received a $404,250 grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease to support his research to better understand and prevent the spread of Lyme disease. “Dr. Seshu’s top-tier efforts in infectious disease research are a source of immense pride for the UTSA College of Sciences,” said George Perry, Semmes Foundation Distinguished University Chair in Neurobiology and dean of the UTSA College of Sciences.

The Latest: Trump budget pick clears 2 committees

The Senate budget and homeland security committees approved South Carolina GOP Congressman Mick Mulvaney for a vote by the full Senate. The move came over the opposition of Democrats who warn of his support for cutting rising costs of Medicare and increasing the age for claiming Social Security benefits.

HHS Nominee Tom Price Targeted Panel That Urged Fewer Cancer Screenings

If the last few years are any guide, one group that may find itself in the crosshairs of Rep. Tom Price, President Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, is an influential panel of medical experts. The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, a group of mostly physician and academics from top universities, reviews medical practices to see whether they are supported by research and evidence.

Uncertain future for Californiaa s anti-smog efforts: Thomas Elias

Cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are down about three percent over the last 40 years in California, even as state population is up by well over one-third, better than 15 million, and far more smog-belching vehicles than ever clog the roads. This is a major public health achievement, and the single biggest reason behind it is the 45-year-old federal Clean Air Act and its provisions for California waivers.

Rep. Doggett encouraging people to sign up for healthcare

In an effort to get people to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, Congressman Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, stopped by the Foundation Communities office in Central Austin Monday to spread the word. While at the center, Doggett talked about the future of the ACA now that Republicans have vowed to repeal it.

Banned from the U.S.: ‘You need to go back to your country’

Hameed Khalid Darweesh, center, a former interpreter for the U.S. military in Iraq, speaks after his release from detention during a protest outside John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Jan. 28, 2017. Reactions were divided after President Donald Trump issued an executive order Friday banning refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States.