News Releases
Today, Rep. Henry A. Waxman and Rep. Earl Blumenauer, joined by 57 Democratic colleagues, sent a letter to the House Republican leadership urging them to ban polystyrene foam products in the House of Representatives cafeteria.
Today Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman, Health Subcommittee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr., and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member Diana DeGette sent a letter to Chairmen Fred Upton, Joe Pitts, and Tim Murphy requesting a hearing on the rapidly growing Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The letter was sent in the wake of an urgent warning by CDC Director Thomas Frieden that “I could not possibly overstate the need for an emergency response” and that the virus is “spiraling out of control.”
Today Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman sent a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy raising questions about EPA’s decision not to use the safety factor ordinarily required by the Food Quality Protection Act in its human health risk assessment for herbicide 2,4-D. The tenfold safety factor was established in the law to protect infants and children from potentially dangerous exposure to herbicide.
Today, a bipartisan group of 12 lawmakers from the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives highlighted a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report entitled, “Medicare Program Integrity: Increased Oversight and Guidance Could Improve Effectiveness and Efficiency of Postpayment Claims Reviews.” The report, which was undertaken following a bipartisan and bicameral request to GAO, found that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) should take additional steps to improve sufficient oversight and guidance to ensure contractor compliance with CMS regulations and to prevent claim review duplication during the auditing of Medicare providers and suppliers.
U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Dick Durbin, U.S. Representative Henry A. Waxman and 20 other Members of Congress today sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration and the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) expressing concern about FDA calculations regarding the proposed “deeming rule,” which would extend the FDA’s regulatory authority to electronic cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, and other novel tobacco products. Specifically, they are opposed to the 70 percent lost pleasure discount, which results in giving individuals who stop using tobacco products only three years of benefit for every ten years of life gained, due to assumed loss of enjoyment from using the products.
Today Ranking Members Henry A. Waxman, Frank Pallone, Jr., and Diana DeGette called on the FDA to use its enforcement authority to take immediate action to protect children from the harms of tobacco. Once FDA finalizes its proposed regulation to assert jurisdiction over various types of tobacco products, like e-cigarettes and cigars, the agency could do this by bringing enforcement cases against manufacturers of such products that are using flavoring or marketing tactics that appeal to children. Since passage of the Tobacco Control Act in 2009, which banned the marketing of flavored cigarettes, manufacturers of e-cigarettes and cigars have been targeting children and teenagers with youth-friendly marketing tactics such as flavoring their products cherry crush, grape, and bubble gum. These tactics are highly effective; as a result, e-cigarettes and flavored cigars are exploding in popularity among youth.
Thirteen Members of Congress today called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take immediate action to protect young people from predatory e-cigarette marketing and distribution tactics that are straight out of big tobacco’s playbook. According to the journal Pediatrics, the number of children aged 12 to 17 years exposed to e-cigarette marketing increased by 256% between 2011 and 2013. This increased exposure has coincided with a dramatic rise in the use of e-cigarettes by youth and an increased risk of addiction to tobacco products.
Today the Bicameral Task Force on Climate Change released the fourth fact sheet in the Clean Energy Breakthroughs series, examining emerging energy technologies and their importance to a clean energy economy of the future. The fact sheet examines challenges of harnessing solar power, technologies for development, and the potential for use as alternative clean energy.
Today, Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr., and Rep. Jan Schakowsky sent letters to Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg and the Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairman Elliot Kaye regarding a new report from the Chronic Hazard Advisory Panel on Phthalates, which found that the chemicals pose significant risks, and urged the agencies to take swift action to ensure necessary protection for human health.
Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman released new reports on the benefits of the Affordable Care Act in every congressional district in the country. These reports provide the first picture of the impacts of the law in districts following the opening of the new health insurance marketplaces, the expansion of Medicaid, and the end of discrimination based on pre-existing health conditions. They show that millions of Americans have already gained health insurance coverage because of the ACA and that tens of millions more are benefitting from the law’s reforms of Medicare and the private insurance market. The reports also demonstrate how many Americans remain uninsured because of some states’ decisions to not accept the Medicaid expansion.
Information on data sources used to compile the reports is available online here.