Shawn Zeller

4 days ago | politico.com | Shawn Zeller |Carmen Paun

The House plans to try again soon to reauthorize the landmark opioid-fighting law President Donald Trump signed during his first term. The SUPPORT Act expired nearly two years ago, though Congress has continued to fund the programs it authorized. The original act authorized billions of dollars in treatment, prevention and recovery funding, including programs for opioid abuse and expanded access to addiction medicines such as buprenorphine. More than to it in preparation for a floor vote.

1 week ago | politico.com | Carmen Paun |Shawn Zeller

The United Nations is working on a make-the-world-healthy agenda for 2030. How so: World leaders are meeting September 25 on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly in New York to discuss preventing and controlling noncommunicable diseases and promoting mental health and well-being. Participating leaders — names are still to be confirmed — are expected to adopt a political declaration that, while not legally binding, pressures governments to align behind the same goals.

2 weeks ago | politico.com | Shawn Zeller

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will again make the case this week for an unprecedented downsizing of federal agencies — this time before a Senate Appropriations panel on Tuesday. The panel’s chair is someone who’s already found fault with the downsizing: West Virginia Republican Shelley Moore Capito. Last week, Kennedy rehired mine-worker-safety staff at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s Morgantown, West Virginia, office .

3 weeks ago | politico.com | Shawn Zeller

President Donald Trump’s plan to make huge cuts to health care programs in the coming fiscal year will get its first airing in Congress this week with a marquee witness: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.Expect Republican lawmakers to let Kennedy tout his Make America Healthy Again initiative to combat chronic disease, while Democrats hone in on the massive cuts the administration has proposed for the Department of Health and Human Services and its agencies.

1 month ago | politico.com | Shawn Zeller |Danny Nguyen

A bipartisan group of Senate and House members has coalesced around proposed legislation to boost patent protections, our Anthony Adragna reports. Set to gain: inventors of medical diagnostics, biotechnology, personalized medicine and artificial intelligence. They’d gain more certainty that their inventions are patentable. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) are the chief sponsors of the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act in the Senate.