All Posts

WASHINGTON, DC – The House of Representatives today approved Energy and Commerce Committee legislation that would help military medics better integrate into civilian EMT jobs.

The Veteran Emergency Medical Technician Support Act (H.R. 235), authored by Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Lois Capps (D-CA), would provide demonstration grants to states with a shortage of emergency medical technicians (EMTs) to streamline state-licensing requirements for military veteran EMTs to prevent unnecessary duplication in training. The legislation, which passed the House by voice vote, recognizes that military medics already have extensive...

WASHINGTON, DC – Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) will address the American Medical Association at the 2013 National Advocacy Conference on Wednesday, February 13, 2013, at 8:00 a.m. at the Grand Hyatt Washington. Upton will discuss the health care law’s impact on physicians and patients and outline the committee’s upcoming plans to address the outdated Medicare physician payment system. Last week, Upton and Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) released a framework of their collaborative efforts to repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate formula...

WASHINGTON, DC – After repeated requests for cooperation and months of delay, Republican leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee today set a final deadline for the Food and Drug Administration to provide documents relevant to the deadly meningitis outbreak and the agency’s history with the New England Compounding Center (NECC). Committee leaders first requested all documents related to FDA's oversight of NECC in mid-October. During a November 14, 2012, Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg repeatedly assured members her agency...

WASHINGTON, DC – Reps. Joe Pitts and Bill Cassidy and Sens. Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch, Lamar Alexander and Michael Enzi today sought details of the federal government’s long-overdue attention to the qualification of the participants in a federal discount prescription drug program.

The discount drug program, called the 340B program, is meant to improve the access of federally funded grantees and other safety net health care providers to prescription drugs to help them fulfill their mission of treating patients with few, if any, other health care options. The program’s  exploding growth has continued...