Stuff in the News: Conservation Fund, Opiate Dependence, Rare Disease Therapy, Obamacare Premiums, USAID

More than 50 Senators in writing a letter to Senate leaders calling for the immediate reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which is set to expire on September 30. Earlier this year, Senator Kelly Ayotte - (R - NH) helped introduce bipartisan legislation that would permanently reauthorize the fund. Rather than using taxpayer money, LWCF is an account in the U.S. Treasury that collects a small percentage of offshore oil and gas leasing receipts, specifically intended to be used for conservation projects. At the local, state, and federal levels, LWCF provides grants to help conserve our natural resources and protect outdoor recreation opportunities, working forests, and wildlife areas.

During a meeting of all 50 states and the District of Columbus on preventing opioid overdose and abuse, HHS Secretary Sylvia Matthews Burwell announced that HHS will revise its regulations related to the prescribing of products containing buprenorphine, which is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of opioid dependence.

U.S. Senators Richard Burr (R-NC), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) introduced the Advancing Targeted Therapies for Rare Diseases Act of 2015. This bipartisan bill will help advance the development of targeted drugs for patients with serious or life-threatening rare genetic diseases. Many rare diseases like Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Cystic Fibrosis, and certain cancers have genetic origins. Different mutations within a gene can result in the same disease, meaning some diseases are further fractured into various subtypes. Fortunately, advances in medicine have made it possible to customize treatments to target particular genetic mutations. Developing drugs for rare diseases is particularly difficult because of the small patient populations available for clinical trials. Therefore, there would need to be dozens of therapies to treat the full spectrum of certain genetic rare diseases. The Advancing Targeted Therapies for Rare Diseases Act of 2015 affirms the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) authority to allow innovators to use their own data supporting the approval of a targeted therapy to help facilitate additional targeted therapies to treat patients with the same rare disease. This bill does not change the FDA’s current approval standards and has the support of the Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD), the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the Duchenne Alliance, and the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD).

U.S. Senators Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) today announced their co-sponsorship of legislation to protect employees of small and medium-sized businesses from insurance premium increases caused by a mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. The Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees Act (S.1099), introduced by Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.), would allow states to maintain their small group insurance market definition at 50 employees, instead of the 100-employee threshold required by Obamacare.

U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) joined Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and other Senate colleagues in writing a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell calling for an immediate vote on the nomination of Gayle Smith to head the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Smith’s nomination has been held up for over four months with press reports indicating that only one Senator is blocking her nomination. The letter was also signed by U.S. Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Tom Udall (NM), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Bob Casey (D-PA), Al Franken (D-MN), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).