June 17, 2020 Dear Friends, Today, the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health respected my May 12, request and held a hearing on racial disparities related to COVID-19. My goal for today’s hearing was for members to listen and take advantage of the opportunity to make a difference and change things for the better. I hope that the discussion today moves us in that direction. We should use this information to draft commonsense, bipartisan legislation that can become law. During the hearing I was able to ask Dr. Roy and Dr. Brooks about how clinical trials will affect the development of a CO... Read More »
by James Bikales The House’s venture in remote committee work during the coronavirus pandemic hit a bump Wednesday as technical issues rendered three committee hearings unintelligible to streaming viewers and forced one into recess. GOP lawmakers seized on the tech problems, arguing they illustrated a need to return to in-person work at the Capitol. The YouTube live streams of the Energy and Commerce Health subcommittee, the Ways and Means Committee and the Foreign Affairs Oversight and Investigations subcommittee all encountered glitches starting around 1 p.m. The Energy and Commerce subcommi... Read More »
June 16, 2020 Dear Friends, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published testing guidelines for nursing home residents and healthcare personnel and guidance for high-density critical infrastructure workplaces after a COVID-19 case is identified. The Food and Drug Administration revoked the Emergency Use Authorization for hydroxychloroquine sulfate and chloroquine phosphate because they determined that these two drugs are unlikely to be effective in treating COVID-19. The Department of Health and Human Services(HHS) released guidance implementing Section 18115 of the CARES Act, req... Read More »
What is Section 230? In 1996, Congress enacted the Communications Decency Act primarily to regulate online pornographic material. Twenty-four years later, arguments surrounding a little-known provision of that law, section 230, may dictate how you answer Facebook’s prompt “What’s on your mind?” or Twitter’s “What’s happening?” among other heavily used social media platforms. So, what is Section 230? Should there be reforms with how social media platforms monitor content? In basic terms, “interactive computer services” such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and other social me... Read More »
June 11, 2020 Dear Friends, The Food and Drug Administrationissued an emergency use authorization to Illumina, Inc., for the first COVID-19 diagnostic test using next-generation sequence technology, which can determine the genetic sequence of a virus. RegeneronPharmaceuticals launched the first clinical trial of its investigational dual antibody cocktail for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the National Influenza Vaccine Strategy for 2020-2030, components of which are helpful during the current pandemic response. HHS released... Read More »
by Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe U.S. Congressman Michael Burgess, R-Pilot Point, was back home in Texas this week and gave a virtual interview with the Denton Record-Chronicle about the COVID-19 pandemic Thursday morning. Below are his answers to our questions as well as his thoughts about the pandemic's problems yet to be solved, edited for clarity and condensed. In addition, here was his bottom line about the toll that COVID-19, the novel coronavirus, continues to exact: “This looks bad on several fronts — the economic front, the biological front. We always get through these things. That’s the one th... Read More »
by Gromer Jeffers Jr. With little social distancing and very few people wearing masks, President Donald Trump’s Dallas roundtable bore little evidence that the nation is grappling with a coronavirus pandemic. Several hundred people gathered at Gateway Church’s Dallas campus for the event. Many sat next to each other, though most others were one seat apart. Very few in the crowd were wearing masks. Most on the 15-person panel didn’t appear to be six feet apart either, the distance that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people follow to prevent the spread of the coronavir... Read More »
By the Office of Rep. Marcy Kaptur WASHINGTON – The Congressional Ukraine Caucus (CUC) Co-Chairs Reps. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Andy Harris (R-Md.), Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), in addition to caucus member Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas), on June 8 sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressing concern regarding Russia’s efforts to circumvent Congressional sanctions on Nord Stream 2, and urging Mr. Pompeo to urgently apply sanctions on Russian entities STIF and MRTS and any other firms should they engage in pipelaying or provide technical support, as mandate... Read More »
Washington, D.C. -- Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-TX), a member of the House Rules Committee and Republican Leader of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, released the following statement after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to advance deployment of 5G infrastructure by adopting its “5G Upgrade Order” based on Section 6409 of the Spectrum Act of 2012. This section allows for approval of simple infrastructure upgrades, such as antenna swaps, on existing cell towers or base stations to occur without the red tape involved in building a whole new cell ... Read More »
June 9, 2020 Dear Friends, The Department of Health and Human Services announced that it will distribute dollars from the Provider Relief Fund to Medicaid and CHIP providers this week. Through an enhanced portal, providers will be able to submit data to be used as a factor in determining their Provider Relief Fund payment. This distribution includes $15 billion for eligible Medicaid and CHIP providers and $10 billion for safety net hospitals that serve our most vulnerable citizens. Agency Updates The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) will expand its partnership wi... Read More »
