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Global Lupus Experts Gather For Historic Meeting -- Urgent And Unmet Needs Of Individuals With Lupus Dominate Agenda
The Lupus Foundation of America (LFA) convened an Expert Panel June 1-2 to address the urgent and unmet need for the development and approval of new, safe, effective, and tolerable medications for people with lupus. It has been more than 50 years since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new drug specifically to treat lupus. Discussions during the two-day meeting in Washington, DC focused on how to better conduct studies of potential new lupus treatments, including clinical endpoints, diagnostic tools, background medications, and clinical trial design.

Sotomayor Signals Support For Roe V. Wade In Meetings With Senators
Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor in conversations with senators has indicated her support for Roe v. Wade, even if she has not explicitly stated that she supports abortion rights, the AP/Yahoo! News reports. According to the AP/Yahoo! News, Sotomayor is "following a time-honored tradition" among nominees of assuring senators that she will not aim to impose a certain agenda, while also avoiding firm commitments on how she might rule on certain issues -- such as abortion rights -- if they come before the court. In questioning Sotomayor, senators hope to obtain assurances that she will honor certain precedents, such as Roe, which allows them to justify their votes for her to their constituents, the AP/Yahoo! News reports. Doug Kendall of the Constitutional Accountability Center said, "There"s always a bit of a parlor game that develops in terms of what precisely words said by nominees mean."Because Sotomayor has never directly ruled on the key issues in Roe, advocates on both sides of the abortion-rights debate have speculated over her views on constitutional privacy rights. White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs has said that President Obama and Sotomayor discussed her "views on unenumerated rights in the Constitution and the theory of settled law." The AP/Yahoo! News reports that Gibbs" comments indicate that Sotomayor would be unlikely to overturn Roe, which supporters consider "settled law." Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.), both of whom support abortion rights, said they spoke with Sotomayor about her position during private meetings and were pleased with her answers. Feinstein said that Sotomayor is "a woman who is well-steeped in the law and well-steeped in precedent, and I believe that she has a real respect for precedent." Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), an opponent of abortion rights, said that when he privately asked Sotomayor whether she believed a fetus should have any constitutional rights, she responded that she had never considered the issue (Hirschfeld Davis, AP/Yahoo! News, 6/18).
News of the day
Nurse Visits To Asthmatic Children's Homes Help Prevent More Serious Treatment
Nurses who make home visits to children with asthma can help prevent half of those children from having to receive more serious treatment for their condition, suggests research published ahead of print in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Mental Health

Frank, Dodd, Grassley Speak Their Minds

News outlets are searching out interesting quotes from players in the health reform debate. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, remains on the fence about several provisions in a Democratic plan, The Washington Post reports: "Winning over the Senate Finance Committee"s ranking Republican would represent a major coup for Democrats and a rare defection from the GOP party line for Grassley, a populist at heart but a loyal Republican according to his voting record. ò€¦ Not even Grassley can tell where he eventually will end up, but he is making the most of the attention he is getting from the White House. Over lunch with Obama last month, the senator complained that certain Environmental Protection Agency pollution policies were harming Iowa farmers. He has since met with several senior White House officials and is negotiating a visit to his state by EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson" (Murray, 6/19). CongressDaily focused on Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn: "As the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee wrapped up a second day of public wrangling over a 600-page health overhaul, the panel"s Democratic leader said bipartisanship isn"t his top priority. "My goal here is to write a good bill. My goal is not bipartisanship," said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who is chairing the markup proceedings while HELP Chairman Edward Kennedy undergoes treatment for brain cancer. "That can help you write a good bill, but it is not an end in itself"" (Hunt, 6/19). ""Certainly, stalling it is not helping it at this point," Dodd said. "My job is to be fair and to keep the process moving forward,"" Dodd told Dow Jones Newswires (Yoest, 6/18). On the House side, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said he agrees with Obama that there are some places in Europe where single-payer systems work, CNSNews.com reports: "As prime minister of Britain, "Margaret Thatcher considered it a great attack on her when people said she was trying to pick apart health care," said Frank. "Britain goes way beyond a single-payer. That"s socialized medicine. Scandinavia, much of Western Europe," have a single-payer system that works" (Lucas, 6/19). Even as the interim communications director for the White House, Anita Dunn is focused on health care, The Washington Post reports in a separate story. ""As we like to say, if it was easy, somebody else would have done it," Dunn says. Dunn started out in Democratic politics in the late "70s, and she is well liked by the media and politicians for her no-nonsense, self-effacing style" (Romano, 6/19). This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org. © Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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