Feature Channels: Government and Law

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Physicians & health professionals from the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) along with rheumatology patients gathered on Capitol Hill this week for the annual Advocates for Arthritis event to urge lawmakers to take action on a range of policy issues affecting patient access to care.

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A new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that the average rate of assaults with firearms increased an average of 9.5 percent relative to forecasted trends in the first 10 years after 34 states relaxed restrictions on civilians carrying concealed firearms in public.

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Dean Matt Auer will testify as a witness for the House Financial Services Committee hearing entitled, “State of Emergency: Examining the Impact of Growing Wildfire Risk on the Insurance Market” on September 22 at 9:00 am

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New research shows the disruption of crop production after the Russian invasion of Ukraine is expected to increase carbon emissions and food prices across the globe, without easing food insecurity.

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Most employers continue to engage in coercive and retaliatory practices to limit union activity, a Cornell University labor relations expert told the U.S. House of Representatives Labor Committee in testimony Sept. 14.

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In a study conducted by Dan Butler, professor of political science at Washington University in St. Louis, voters were more likely to contact their female representatives and asked them to do more on a variety of issues including education, health, immigration, the economy and more.

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Although some politicians and analysts argue that U.S. foreign policy should somehow rise above ideology, the evidence suggests that isn’t possible, according to a historian who edited a new book on the subject.

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KINGSTON, R.I. – September 15, 2022 – A recent decision by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to make hearing aids available over-the-counter is expanding access to assistance for millions of adults across the country who may have trouble hearing. The new rule was issued by the FDA in mid-August and will take effect mid-October.

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The current U.S. trajectory to decouple from China on clean energy technologies can harm national and global efforts to mitigate climate change, reveals a new University of California San Diego study published in Science.

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A report released today by the Center for State Policy Analysis (cSPA) at Tufts University's Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life looks at the first ballot question facing Massachusetts voters this fall: the proposal to increase education, transit and transportation spending with a 4 percent surtax on earnings over $1 million.

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Since 1954, ethics enforcement in New York has been tenuous. In July, the New York Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government became the State’s latest ethics oversight agency. The Government Law Center (GLC) at Albany Law School examines the structure and responsibilities of the new commission—and the 2022 law that created it—in its latest explainer, “Explaining the Ethics Commission Reform Act of 2022.”

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The House voted overwhelmingly today to reform prior authorization under the Medicare Advantage program to help ensure America’s seniors get the care they need when they need it.

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On behalf of the nation's radiation oncologists and the more than one million people with cancer they will treat this year, the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) applauded today's House passage of bipartisan federal legislation that would rein in restrictive prior authorization practices that delay patient access to critical cancer treatments.

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Leveraging infrastructure developed through the Opportunity Zone policy framework, the growing number of investment funds and investors concerned about social causes, rural communities now have a blueprint to help seek investment from private sector partners for vital community and capital improvement projects.

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Much of the world’s efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change hinge on the success of the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement. A new Nature Climate Change study is the first to provide scientific evidence assessing how effective governments will be at implementing their commitments to the agreement that will reduce CO2 emissions causing climate change.

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The first major study of driving forces behind government funding of energy RD&D – and the public institutions generating it – over the 21st century shows that competition created by China’s rise as a technology superpower led to significant increases in clean energy investment.

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King Charles will serve as bridge for British royal family, expert says King Charles III reign will serve as a bridge between Queen Elizabeth II and a different, smaller Royal Family, says Marlene Koening, a librarian for Virginia Tech’s Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center and a recognized expert on British and European royalty.

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The death of Queen Elizabeth marks the end of an era according to Andrew Walkling, a historian at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

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To provide more affordable, reliable and sustainable electricity to underserved communities like these, scientists from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are partnering with local organizations, nonprofits and universities to build resilience into independent microgrids powered by renewable energy. ORNL is developing a technology that will manage groups of small microgrids as a cluster, enhancing their reliability even when damaged.

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The increasing demand for electric vehicles and cell phones has accelerated the need for safer energy storage after numerous instances of commercial lithium-ion batteries overheating and catching fire. Peng Bai, assistant professor of energy, environmental & chemical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St.

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Distrust and, at times, outright dismissal of public health’s evolving pandemic guidance might have been minimized by relying more heavily on input and guidance from ethicists, argue the authors of a new perspective piece in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Utah’s consumer sentiment increased from 62.9 in July 2022 to 66.0 in August 2022, according to the Kem C. Gardner Institute’s Consumer Sentiment Survey, after three consecutive months of decline.

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A new study led by the Harvard and University of Washington schools of public health found that emergency federal school lunch programs reached more than 30 million children and either directly provided meals or, through the P-EBT program, cash for nearly 1.5 billion meals a month in 2020.

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In comments submitted to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in response to the CY 2023 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and Quality Payment Program proposed rule, the ACR applauded proposals that would provide more flexibility and improve care coordination.

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On Tuesday Sept. 7, 2022, a federal judge in Texas ruled that the Affordable Care Act's US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) violates the U.S. Constitution's Delegations Clause and is unconstitutional. Under the Affordable Care Act, preventive services that receive an A or B grade rating from the USPSTF must be offered by health insurance providers – at no cost to patients. This ruling jeopardizes the availability and affordability of a wide range of preventive health services currently enjoyed by millions of Americans.

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Los Alamos National Laboratory is leading a new research consortium funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to identify and characterize the nation’s hundreds of thousands of undocumented orphaned wells and determine their full environmental impact with a focus on methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas.

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Although extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs) show promise in preventing firearm violence, new research from the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program finds racial and ethnic differences in how ERPOs are perceived and used in California.

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Ivory Innovations has opened nominations for the 5th Annual Ivory Prize for Housing Affordability.

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Researchers at the University of Oregon will receive more than $16 million in federal funds as part of a major government grant to the Oregon Mass Timber Coalition from the Build Back Better Regional Challenge. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration has awarded the coalition a total of $41.4 million, with $24.6 million going to the TallWood Design Institute, a collaboration between the UO and Oregon State University to support Oregon’s mass timber industry. OSU will receive $8 million.

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University of Illinois Chicago early childhood researcher Kate Zinsser aims to bring context to the decisions and greater attention to the issue

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As taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages continue to pop up across the U.S. and abroad, public health experts laud their effect on lowering purchases of the calorie-heavy drinks and encouraging healthier habits. But new research from the University of Georgia suggests many soda taxes might actually not be making much of an impact at all when it comes to improving diets and reducing sugar intake.

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Researchers analyzed how the expectation of a vaccine influences optimal lockdown measures during a pandemic.

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Despite concerns about the impact of inflation, employment indicators remained virtually unchanged, according to today’s National Trends in Disability Employment – Monthly Update (nTIDE), issued by Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability (UNH-IOD).