On August 8, 2014, President Obama signed into law the following two bills approved by the Senate in July:
- H.R. 4631, the Autism CARES Act, to continue federal research, early identification and intervention, and education related to autism; and
- H.R. 3548, the Improving Trauma Care Act, to include in the Public Health Service Act definition of trauma injuries caused by thermal, electrical, chemical, or radioactive force.
In addition, prior to beginning the August recess, the House of Representatives approved the following bills:
- H.R. 4250, the Sunscreen Innovation Act, which is intended to establish a more efficient FDA review process for new sunscreen ingredients;
- H.R. 594, the Paul D. Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Community Assistance, Research and Education Amendments of 2014; and
- H.R. 4709, the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act, which would amend the Controlled Substances Act that seeks to improve enforcement efforts related to prescription drug diversion and abuse while ensuring patient access to necessary medications.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee also voted in favor of the following legislation:
- H.R. 4701, the Lyme and Tick-borne Diseases Act of 2014, which would convene working groups to focus on vector-borne disease and develop strategic plans for prevention and treatment.
- H.R. 3522, the Employee Health Care Protection Act, which would allow health insurance issuers to continue to offer non-ACA compliant group coverage that was in effect during 2013.
- H.R. 4067, which would continue to delay for the remainder of 2014 the enforcement instruction regarding supervision requirements for outpatient therapeutic services offered in critical access and small rural hospitals.
- H.R. 5214, a bill to require the HHS Secretary to make recommendations for the development and use of clinical data registries for the improvement of patient care.
This article is presented for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal advice.