Tom Howell Jr.
Articles by Tom Howell Jr.
GOP leaders scramble to rescue Puerto Rico from $72B debt
House Republican leaders scrambled Thursday to rally support for a bill that rescues Puerto Rico from $72 billion in bond debt by imposing an oversight board to audit the U.S. territory's finances and put it on a path toward fiscal responsibility. Published April 13, 2016
Obama rejects Supreme Court’s contraception trade-off
The administration shot down the Supreme Court's effort to forge a compromise on Obamacare's contraceptive mandate, saying Tuesday that the justices' alternative proposal would set up too many hurdles for the government and insurers. Published April 12, 2016
Mitch McConnell: Even without budget, spending process will begin next week
Unable to pass an actual budget for the coming year, the Senate will rely on funding levels the parties agreed to last fall when it kick-starts the annual spending process with an energy-and-water bill next week, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday. Published April 12, 2016
Goldman Sachs latest Wall Street giant to pony up, avoid prosecutions over mortgage crisis
Goldman Sachs agreed to a $5 billion settlement payment Monday, marking yet another Wall Street giant that's making up for its financial breaches through money -- but whose executives have yet to face criminal charges for helping send the country's economy into the Great Recession. Published April 11, 2016
Zika ‘a bit scarier’ than previously thought: Health officials
Zika is "a bit scarier" than the administration initially thought, officials acknowledged Monday, rattling off a list of alarming discoveries about the mosquito-borne virus that is linked to serious birth defects and debilitating syndromes. Published April 11, 2016
Genetically modified mosquitoes for Zika fight worry Floridians
To fight a mosquito, maybe you've got to be a mosquito -- at least that's the hope behind one of the proposals to try to combat the Zika virus. Published April 10, 2016
Kevin McCarthy says House will target opioid epidemic
House GOP leaders returning from Easter break say they have a strategy for tackling the prescription opioid and heroin epidemic that's ravaging the country, though a key senator is urging them to work fast, noting his chamber sent them a bill that's "ready to go." Published April 10, 2016
Large share of Americans know little about Zika: Poll
A large number of Americans have heard little or nothing about the Zika virus, according to a new poll Thursday that shows found most people in the U.S. are not terribly concerned about an outbreak here. Published April 7, 2016
Zika virus: FDA extends comment period for GMO mosquito trial in Florida
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday said it will give the public an extra month to weigh in on a British company's request to release its genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys, a trial aimed at slashing the number of insects that carry Zika virus. Published April 7, 2016
Zika virus: White House transfers nearly $600M from Ebola fight
The White House will redirect nearly $600 million from the Ebola fight in West Africa and other accounts to combat Zika virus, the latest big health scare, tacitly caving to GOP demands Wednesday even as it said it still wants $1.9 billion from Congress to combat the new threat. Published April 6, 2016
Mitch McConnell: Senate will begin spending process without budget in place
The Senate will likely miss the deadline for approving a federal budget, forgoing the annual blueprint that is supposed to govern all spending, and instead will write bills based on a higher dollar total than the one John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, agreed to with President Obama last year before stepping down as House speaker. Published April 5, 2016
CMS proposes pay raise for Medicare Advantage plans
Private insurers that offer Medicare Advantage plans will receive a nearly 1 percent raise from the federal government next year, the Obama administration announced Monday. Published April 4, 2016
Probe of Ebola flareup in Liberia widens; woman traveled from Guinea after husband died
A 30-year-old woman who died from Ebola last week arrived in Liberia from Guinea, where her husband had died of unknown causes, the World Health Organization said Monday as it traced the source of a flareup that put authorities on high alert for the virus that had been nearly stamped out after a two-year outbreak in West Africa. Published April 4, 2016
White House: Money isn’t there to fight the Zika virus
Congress should "do its job" and take up President Obama's request for nearly $2 billion to combat the Zika virus, the White House said Friday in its most urgent plea to date for emergency funding to defend pregnant women against the mosquito-borne disease linked to serious birth defects. Published April 1, 2016
Liberia reports new Ebola case; Third since nation was ‘cleared’ in May
A 30-year-old Liberian woman died from Ebola on her way to a Monrovia hospital, global health officials said Friday, marking the West African country's third flareup of the disease since it was cleared of the virus in May. Published April 1, 2016
Tom Frieden, CDC chief, says Americans ‘deserve’ more Zika funding
The chief of the Centers for Disease Control said Thursday the U.S. needs new funding to "provide the protection that Americans deserve" against the Zika virus, a mosquito-borne virus that's been linked to serious birth defects in Latin America and has infected hundreds in Puerto Rico. Published March 31, 2016
Zika-affected areas can screen blood with experimental test: FDA
Puerto Rico and other areas with active transmission of Zika virus can use an experimental test to screen local blood donations for the mosquito-borne disease that's been linked to serious birth defects, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday. Published March 30, 2016
Obamacare customers are sicker and costlier than pre-2014 folks: insurer study
New Obamacare customers are sicker and costlier than customers who bought insurance before President Obama's massive health overhaul, one of the country's top insurance companies said Wednesday, giving more ammunition to critics who say the law is broken. Published March 30, 2016
Supreme Court seeks new remedy in birth control case
The Supreme Court appears to be searching for a middle ground on the Obamacare contraceptive mandate, issuing an order Tuesday asking both the government and the religious charities challenging the rules to try to come up with options that can accommodate both sides. Published March 29, 2016
White House unveils long list of efforts to combat opioid abuse
President Obama proposed a series of steps Tuesday to save addicts who've been swept up by the prescription opioid and heroin epidemic, from allowing doctors to perform medication-based treatment on more patients to expanding the use of an overdose-reversing drug. Published March 29, 2016
