Morgan Griffith's Updates

(This "Right-to-Try Update" seems pertinent to that touching Change.org petition this web site just posted...I'm ambivalent. If I'm learning one thing from the ongoing glyphosate nightmare that's making it impossible for me to stay healthy by simple but rigorous dietary discipline, it's that it can be hard to prove that a chemical is responsible even for the effects it reliably, predictably produces...in reaction to some people, not other people. Swallowing one bad peanut gives some vulnerable people melodramatic peanut allergies; I've swallowed at least parts of many bad peanuts, in fifty years, and show no reaction. Touching poison ivy gives some people spreading rashes that put them in the hospital; I've picked up and carried the stuff in my bare hands. Some people claim they've got glyphosate all over their hands, faces, eyes, and had no reaction; let's just say that if I inhale a whiff of distant glyphosate in the air it's going to be very difficult for me to finish a normal day's work, not even so much because I lose muscle strength and energy, although I do that too, as because I'll be spending more than half the day mopping my nose. And, just as with the link between tobacco smoke and lung cancer, a lot of money is being spent to ensure that a lot of people are going to have to suffer and probably die to prove that the chemical has adverse effects...)

From U.S. Representative Morgan Griffith (R-VA-9):

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Right-to-Try Update
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, on which I serve, recently heard testimony from Dr. Scott Gottlieb, head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), about expanding access to new, unapproved treatments for patients with life-threatening illnesses. I have long supported the idea of “right-to-try,” having introduced bills on the issue since 2014, and I am encouraged by increased support for it in Congress and by this Administration.
On the day that Dr. Gottlieb testified before my Committee, he announced in a blog post that FDA had updated guidance for expanded access to investigational drugs for treatment use. According to Dr. Gottlieb, the new guidance would require reporting suspected adverse reactions to investigational drugs only if evidence suggests that the drug is responsible. This revision would be a step in the right direction, and I am hopeful it will help patients facing long odds for recovery. I will continue to work in Congress for solutions that could provide even more relief, such as my bill, the Compassionate Freedom of Choice Act.
Budget Update
The budget is supposed to be a blueprint for appropriations bills. When the House passed the budget on October 5, however, it had already passed all appropriations bills, in fact the first time the House had done so before the deadline since 2009. So why did we subsequently pass the blueprint? To have a chance at real tax reform under the Senate rules, budget reconciliation is needed because it only requires 50 votes to reconcile the budget bill. Thus, we passed the budget in order to have a vehicle to fight for real tax reform.
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