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…

A position paper published by the American College of Physicians (ACP) on November 20, 2018, argued that firearm-related deaths and injuries in the United States need to be addressed. The paper stated: “The ACP is concerned about not only the alarm­ing number of mass shootings in the United States but also the daily toll of firearm violence in neigh­borhoods, homes, workplaces, and public and private places across the country.” The National Rifle Association responded with a tweet that said: “Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane. Half of the articles in Annals of Internal Medicine are…

On October 30, President Trump announced that he is considering issuing an Executive Order to end birthright citizenship. Birthright citizenship is the principle that anyone born on American soil is automatically a citizen, regardless of the immigration status of the parents, as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the state wherein they reside.” The Fourteenth Amendment was adopted in 1868 as part of the Reconstruction Amendments after the Civil War, and was intended to…

In early October, in a rare act of bipartisanship, Congress approved a legislative package to address the opioid epidemic, sending it to the President for his signature. The conference report on the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Act passed the Senate on October 3 by a vote of 98 to 1, and the House on October 5 by a vote of 393 to 8. The legislation: Reauthorizes funding for the 21st Century Cures Act, passed by the previous Congress, which provided $500 million annually to combat the opioid crisis, and gives…

On August 9, Vice President Pence laid out an ambitious plan to establish a “Space Force” by 2020 as the sixth branch of the U.S. military. The new branch would be the first since the Air Force was formed shortly after World War II. Pence stated: “The space environment has fundamentally changed in the last generation. What was once peaceful and uncontested is now crowded and adversarial. Today, other nations are seeking to disrupt our space-based systems and challenge American supremacy in space as never before.” Pence cited he pursuit of new space weapons by Russia, China, North Korea, and…

Ten Senate Republicans have introduced a bill designed to guarantee protections for patients with pre-existing conditions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The move is in response to a lawsuit brought by 20 States that are seeking to invalidate the law since Congress effectively ended the “individual mandate” that requires most Americans to have health insurance coverage or pay a fine. The U.S. Department of Justice has declined to defend the ACA in court and has called provisions of that prohibit discrimination based on pre-existing conditions unconstitutional. Oral arguments in Texas v. United States began in early September. The Republican…