Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Rep. Slaughter Offers Bill To Tighten 'Ethics Loopholes' On Congressional Stock Trading
Rep. Louise M. Slaughter introduced a bill Friday to close 鈥渆thics loopholes鈥 in a聽five-year-old law that has failed to stop members of Congress from taking advantage of exclusive stock deals that are not available to the general public. Slaughter (D-N.Y.), a co-author of the 2012 Stock Act, said she decided that amendments to the law are needed because of controversial, discounted stock purchases that were made by Reps. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) and Tom Price (R-Ga.), now the secretary of health and human services,聽 in 2015 and 2016. (Kindy, 4/28)
Democratic lawmakers this week introduced a bill that would ban the practice of 鈥渃onversion therapy,鈥 treatments that historically have targeted the LGBT community and claim to be able to change a person鈥檚 sexual orientation or gender identity. The Therapeutic Fraud Prevention Act of 2017 was introduced Tuesday by聽Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), along with Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.). About 70 other members of Congress, all Democrats, have said they support the bill, which would allow the Federal Trade Commission to classify conversion therapy and its practitioners as fraudulent. (Wang, 4/27)