ABOUT:
Defense policy analysis, commentary and discussion.Melissa Attias covers health care policy as a staff writer for CQ Roll Call. Before joining the health team, she reported on social policy legislation moving through Congress and followed House and Senate floor action for CQ's legislative tracking team. She also completed internships at Roll Call newspaper and CQ HealthBeat before the two newsrooms merged.
A graduate of the George Washington University, Melissa earned a bachelor's degree in journalism and mass communication and a minor in political science. She grew up in Greensboro, N.C., and currently lives on Capitol Hill.
Controversy has swirled around a National Academies Institute of Medicine report on sodium intake since its release, prompting health advocates, as well as some of the report’s authors, to argue that it’s been misunderstood and is in line with broader efforts encouraging Americans to consume less sodium.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday that she made five phone calls in connection with Enroll America, a nonprofit helping with outreach and education for the health care law. Two of the calls were fundraising solicitations, she said.
Efforts to increase awareness of mental-health issues and reduce the stigma associated with them got a boost Monday when the Obama administration hosted a national conference on mental health at the White House.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is calling for medical research to gain precedence over some other issues, as Congress tries to balance competing priorities with limited dollars.
The decision to tie mental health legislation to the Senate gun package that was pulled from the floor last month has left supporters of those provisions in limbo.
If hundreds of comments are any indication, everyone has ideas about what a House committee should include in its tax overhaul package.
The top Senate Republican is calling on the House to send over legislation to repeal the health care law’s tax on medical devices, following a bipartisan vote among senators in favor of such a move last week.
A number of bills focused on mental-health issues have been introduced in the 113th Congress, including the following:
For Rep. Ron Barber, the discussion about gun violence and mental health that has followed December’s elementary school shooting has a deeply personal element: The Arizona Democrat was among the injured after a mentally unstable gunman opened fire on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others in 2011.
Minnesota Democrat Al Franken has been positioning himself as one of the Senate’s key voices on mental-health care, following in the legacy of his late friend and predecessor, Sen. Paul Wellstone.
Lawmakers in both chambers are calling for Congress to start a conversation about mental health issues in the wake of last week’s deadly shooting at a Connecticut elementary school, with one goal of ensuring adequate funding for services for those who need treatment. Murphy called for Congress to initiate a “full-scale” effort into reviewing mental health issues. The lawmaker said he would also work to prevent end-of-year cuts to services. Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo
Opponents of the health care law’s tax on medical devices say they are making headway in their push to repeal the provision before it takes effect next year. But some see delaying the implementation of the tax as a way to get around concerns about the cost of eliminating it if they’re unable to fully repeal it before the end of the session.
No matter how its members feel about marijuana use, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers wants to ensure that states can move forward with their marijuana laws without federal interference and has introduced legislation to make that happen.
Supporters of legislation that would bolster research on the deadliest cancers have dodged a Senate hold by attaching their measure to the defense authorization bill.
For more than a decade, Indiana Republican Dan Burton has been a leading House voice on autism and a proponent of the theory that mercury in vaccines contributes to the disorder. He held at least 20 hearings examining the potential link between the two during three terms as chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee and one as head of the panel’s subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness, according to his office.
Although both parties have urged a bipartisan response to the recent fungal meningitis outbreak, House Democrats pushed for legislation Wednesday that clarifies the Food and Drug Administration’s authority over compounding pharmacies, while Republicans expressed skepticism that a gap currently exists.
When Julie M. Fleshman was hired to head the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network more than a dozen years ago, she became, at the age of 25, the group’s first full-time employee. Since then, the organization has grown into a volunteer network with 58 affiliates that are leading the charge for the cancer legislation.
In the last few days before Congress left for its campaign recess, legislation to promote research on the deadliest cancers looked like it was on the fast track to the president’s desk.
The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee issued a subpoena Monday for documents related to a Medicare Advantage demonstration project, after notifying the Health and Human Services secretary last week that he planned to push ahead.
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