July 31, 2009

- The following letter regarding health care reform was sent to all members of Congress today by the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD). Full release.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Minister of Foreign Affairs His Royal Highness Prince Saud Al-Faisal today met with U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to discuss a host of issues vital to both countries. The bilateral meeting and working lunch took place at the Department of State in Washington, DC. Full release.

California patient advocacy organizations Healthy African American Families, Familia Unida, and For Grace today sent a letter to California Attorney General Jerry Brown requesting an investigation into discriminatory practices by health insurance companies that deny entire California communities access to critical and often life-saving medications. Full release.

Last night, U.S. Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) introduced an amendment to the Democratic leadership's health care bill, H.R. 3200, that would specifically include abortion in the health care legislation, solidifying the radical pro-abortion nature of this bill. Family Research Council Action President Tony Perkins had this to say on the late night shenanigans in the House Energy and Commerce Committee mark up: "It has been clear to many that the health bills moving through Congress would fund abortion services and mandate coverage for abortion, jumping well beyond the current law which prohibits the funding or subsidizing of abortion. Full release.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced today that it will begin testing two types of advanced imaging technology at George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Imaging technologies quickly and unobtrusively screen passengers for metallic and nonmetallic threats without physical contact. Millimeter wave and backscatter imaging technologies provide enhanced detection capabilities and are 100 percent optional for all passengers. Both technologies have privacy protections in place for the traveler. The security officer who assists the passenger through the screening process never sees the image the technology produces. The image is viewed by a remotely located security officer who never sees the traveler. Further, these technologies cannot save, print, or transmit images. Once the image is deleted it cannot be restored. To further protect passenger privacy, millimeter wave technology blurs all facial features and backscatter has an algorithm applied to the entire image. Full release.

Space shuttle Endeavour and its crew of seven astronauts ended a 16-day journey of more than 6.5 million miles with a 10:48 a.m. EDT landing Friday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During the flight, Endeavour delivered the final piece of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory and a new crew member to the International Space Station. Endeavour's mission included five spacewalks and installation of two platforms outside the Japanese module. One platform remained on the station and serves as a type of porch for experiments that require direct exposure to space. The other was an experiment storage pallet that returned aboard the shuttle. During the mission, Kibo's robotic arm transferred three experiments from the palette to the platform. The station now is 83 percent complete and has a mass of more than 685,000 pounds. Full release.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that it met the July 1, 2009 deadline to create more than 2,200 new jobs across the country. Funding for the positions was made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The new employees will support the agency's 2010 Census partnership program. Under the Recovery Act, the Census Bureau received $1 billion in funding, $120 million of which was used to create the new positions. The remaining funds were directed to other critical 2010 Census operations, including expanding the 2010 Census communications and advertising campaign. Full release.

The safety of airport traffic control tower personnel is the focus of an inspection targeting program titled "Federal Aviation Administration's Airport Traffic Control Tower Monitoring Program," which monitors how workers clear a control tower in case of fire and other emergencies. The inspection targeting program, conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), examines the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) air traffic control towers' provision of safe means of egress, or exit, for workers at FAA-owned and operated towers. The program requires the FAA to bring towers into compliance with the alternate standard for egress and fire safety. OSHA inspectors will inspect randomly selected towers to determine if the FAA is meeting this requirement. A description of OSHA's alternate standard is available at https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=10114. Full release.

According to its proponents, the Swiss system results in health care which is comparable to that in the most affluent U.S. states, while its per capita health costs are 40 percent lower than in the U.S. Switzerland currently has 80-plus separate health plans competing for business, from which Swiss citizens can freely choose. The government's primary (if not only) role is to subsidize lower-income people. A primary advantage of such a consumer-controlled system, proponents say, is that it spreads risk across the full population spectrum, thereby lowering loss ratios and enabling lower premiums. It also keeps a proven health care delivery system in place, which government-controlled plans would necessarily disrupt. Full release.

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