Public/Global Health

A coalition of more than 3,000 advocacy groups criticized Congress for fixing air traffic furloughs but ignoring the sequester's other consequences, such as medical research cuts.

NDD United, which fights reductions in discretionary spending, urged lawmakers in a letter Friday to turn off sequestration altogether instead of "picking favorites."

"Earmarking certain priorities for exemption in a piecemeal fashion is not a long-term solution," the groups wrote.

A powerful House chairman vowed Thursday to put legislation on President Obama’s desk that would give regulators more power to track prescription drugs.

“I commit today that I will do all that I can to make it happen,” Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said during a hearing.

Lawmakers on Thursday examined a draft bill from Reps. Bob Latta (R-Ohio) and Jim Matheson (D-Utah) that attempts to address loopholes in the drug supply system and give regulators tools to close them. However, while testing the waters for an electronic tracking system, the draft bill falls short of implementing one.

Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) got emotional Thursday when talking about a Senate resolution designating National Pediatric Brain Cancer Awareness Day. She said she has a personal friend with the disease.

The Senate then passed by unanimous consent S. Res. 116 introduced by Fischer and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).

The Food and Drug Administration has been given the green light to collect information from cigarette and tobacco companies about the chemicals they use.

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up tobacco companies' lawsuit against new rules requiring them to display large, graphic warnings on cigarette packages.

The court declined to hear a case challenging the graphic warnings — along with other sections of a landmark 2009 tobacco law. 

The Supreme Court's refusal to hear the case leaves in place a lower court's decision upholding most of the tobacco law, including its requirement for graphic warning images on cigarette packs.

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The American Lung Association and other health groups are asking federal regulators to ban menthol in cigarettes.

The groups says the minty taste is just as effective at getting smokers hooked as other flavorings that were banned under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009.

After receiving a torrent of negative comments, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is clarifying the intent of a comment request by the agency on a petition regarding artificially sweetened milk.

President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama donated about $12,000 to disease and health groups in 2012, according to their tax returns.

The document reveals the couple's priorities when it comes to charitable giving, which consumed nearly one-quarter of their income last year and the year before.

The vast majority of their donations went to the Fisher House Foundation, a nonprofit for military families that benefits from the proceeds of President Obama's children's book. 

Leading GOP lawmakers are pushing for information on public relations spending at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) after an editorial criticized an outsize communications budget at one institute.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and six colleagues asked NIH Director Francis Collins to describe how much is spent on PR at the NIH's 27 institutes and centers.

The lawmakers hinted that some PR funds should be reprogrammed for research, given the NIH's $1.6 billion hit from sequestration.