From the September 2019 issue of Congressional Digest Extreme risk laws, also known as “Red Flag” laws, enable citizens to prevent a person in crisis from obtaining firearms. The laws are designed to de-escalate a crisis situation. If a family member or police officer believes that the person might harm themselves or someone else, she may petition a judge to restrict access. In March, Representative Ted Deutch (R-FL) reintroduced legislation that would give grants to States that have such laws. Also in March, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on gun control entitled “Red Flag Laws: Examining Guidelines for…

The Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade decision on January 22, 1973, making abortion legal in the United States. Today, the Federal Government uses abortion as a factor in deciding which countries or organizations receive U.S. foreign assistance. Federal policies on funding or supporting abortion or family planning programs abroad drive legislation and debate. Decisions over how U.S. funds should be used abroad have been perpetually contentious, and administrations have rescinded and re-instituted them. A September 12, 2018, Congressional Research Service report, Abortion and Family Planning-Related Provisions in U.S. Foreign Assistance Law and Policy, says:         The Executive Branch has…

With legislation varying from State to State, and an increased social tolerance for marijuana use, questions surrounding how the substance should be legislated have reached the Federal level. On July 10, 2019, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on “Marijuana Laws in America: Racial Justice and the Need for Reform.” Ideas addressed included the question of Federal decriminalization of marijuana, regulation of marijuana along the lines of how alcohol is controlled, and the racial lines along which prosecution of marijuana possession falls. At the hearing, Marilyn J. Mosby, the State’s Attorney for Baltimore City, Maryland, said that as of…

On July 25, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform’s Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy held a hearing called “Examining JUUL’s Role in the Youth Nicotine Epidemic: Part II.” The subcommittee used some 55,000 documents in its investigation. Members said that a division of the JUUL company, which manufactures e-cigarettes, paid schools to be allowed to present information. The company maintains that the programs were to teach students about the perils of nicotine addiction, and that they no longer sponsored such programs. Matthew Myers, who is the president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, testified that JUUL was behaving…

In the fight to combat the opiate epidemic in America, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced a new initiative. Priorities include changing physicians’ opioid prescribing practices, expanding the use of naloxone, which treats overdoses, and expanding medication-assisted treatment to address addiction and mortality related to opioid drugs. An HHS fact sheet released April 24, 2019, says that: “from January 2017 to February 2019, there has been a 23 percent increase in patients receiving buprenorphine and a 42 percent increase in prescriptions for naltrexone. Community health centers funded by HRSA [Health Resources and Services Administration] saw a…

On March 10, 2019, an Ethiopian Air plane crashed in Ethiopia, killing all 157 people on board, including eight American citizens. The aircraft was a Boeing 737 MAX. Evidence suggested that a new automated system could have contributed to the crash. Later in the month, the Aviation and Space Subcommittee of the U. S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a hearing on the state of airline safety. A focus of the hearing was the way in which aviation safety remains a paramount concern even as technology has advanced and changed. Daniel K. Elwell, Act­ing Administrator of the…

A year after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Senator Bob Menendez (NJ-D) and Representative Ted Deutch (FL-D) introduced the Keep America Safe Act. The bill would ban the sale of gun magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. In a February 12 press conference, supporters called the legislation a step in the process of passing individual gun safety measures instead of a comprehensive package. Senator Richard Blumenthal (CT-D), cosponsor of the bill, stated: “Guns become doubly and triply deadline in these massacres because of these high-capacity magazines, and so if we…

The House of Representatives will soon take up legislation to require universal background checks for gun buyers. The Bipartisan Background Checks Act — H.R. 8, introduced by Representative Mike Thompson (CA-D) — has 230 cosponsors, including five Republicans. The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the bill on February 6, titled “Preventing Gun Violence: A Call to Action.” The bill would close the “gun show loophole,” which allows people purchasing firearms through private sales, typically at gun shows, to forgo a background check. Under the legislation, only licensed firearms dealers would be permitted to exchange weapons, with a few…

One item in the recently enacted Farm Bill is the legalization of hemp farming. The law incorporates Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (KY-R) Hemp Farming Act of 2018, which took hemp off of the Controlled Substances Act. It’s the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s job to put the farm bill into action. (In general, the law deals with programs that include rural development, conservation, and nutrition as well as farming.) Also, it enables hemp producers to obtain Federal crop insurance. (McConnell signed the Farm Bill Conference Report with a pen made from hemp.) In a December 2018 speech, McConnell stated: “Last…

The Trump Administration has proposed a new rule that would ban bump stocks, devices that are used to make semiautomatic guns operate like machine guns. The shooter in the Las Vegas shooting used a bump stock. Bump stocks are banned in some States, including Delaware, Hawaii, and Florida. In December of 2018, the Department of Justice wrote that it was “… amending the regulations of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to clarify that bump-stock-type devices—meaning “bump fire” stocks, slide-fire devices, and devices with certain similar characteristics—are “machineguns” as defined by the National Firearms Act of 1934…