| Melania Trump calls for action on opioids First lady Melania Trump opened the White House summit on opioids with a call for action. The first lady added her voice to the discussion as the administration works to highlight steps it has taken to address the crisis. "I am so proud of the work that this administration has already done to combat this epidemic," Trump said. "We all know there is still much work to be done, which is why we are all here today." The first lady read from a letter written by a woman who lost her son to an opioid overdose. In her remarks, Trump called for a focus on babies and young mothers with addiction. Read more here. GOP chairman: Panel reviewing additional legislation to fight opioid crisis House Energy and Commerce Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) detailed additional pieces of opioid legislation the panel will review as it aims to get the bills passed by Memorial Day weekend. At a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event Thursday on combating the opioid epidemic, Walden specifically mentioned three bills the committee will review in its next legislative hearings slated for this month. These include a measure to add information about a patient's opioid addiction into certain medical records; establish a federal coordinator to conduct an electronic database on opioid data, funding resources, analysis of the effectiveness of federal programs and more; and require the Government Accountability Office to evaluate and study ways to safely dispose of opioids. Read more here. Sessions asks DEA to review opioid production quotas Attorney General Jeff Sessions is asking the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to evaluate whether changes are needed to the amount of opioids drug makers are allowed to produce. If needed, potential alterations could be made through an interim final rule, which allows an agency to issue a new regulation effective immediately without first going through the notice and comment period. In Sessions's memo to the DEA, he noted that studies have indicated the U.S. is an outlier compared to other countries in how many opioid prescriptions are given out each year. Every year, the DEA sets the production and manufacturing quotas for Schedule I and II controlled substances. "Given the urgency of this crisis, with an estimated 175 Americans dying per day, we need the DEA to act quickly to determine if changes are needed in the quotas," Sessions wrote in the memo. Read more here. Mental health groups push for policy changes after shooting Mental health advocates are seizing on the new spotlight on their issue after the Florida shooting, as President Trump and congressional Republicans focus on mental health as a solution to gun violence. Some mental health groups want to use the renewed attention on mental illness to push for more resources to address what they see as major gaps in the country's mental health system. While Democrats have accused Republicans of focusing on mental health in an attempt to deflect attention from gun control, advocates welcome the focus. "It is a deflection when people start talking about guns and violence and mental health, but if people want to deflect and have the conversation, I'm more than willing to have it," said Paul Gionfriddo, president of Mental Health America. Read more here. Senate Dem calls for funding CDC gun research A Democratic senator is calling on appropriators to include funding in the upcoming budget bill for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to study gun violence. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said he wants to provide $10 million a year for six years to conduct or support CDC research on firearms safety and gun violence prevention. "We seem to have found the political will on research into gun violence prevention, so the only thing stopping it is funding," Markey said in a statement. "For too long, our researchers, scientists, and policymakers have suffered from the lack of information about what is causing gun violence and what can be done to prevent it. No one should be afraid of science." Long-standing restrictions have effectively prevented the CDC from conducting any kind of gun violence protection research. Read more here. Planned Parenthood announces $20M midterm election campaign Planned Parenthood's political arm is taking aim at eight states in its largest-ever midterm election campaign, the organization announced Thursday. The "March. Vote. Win." campaign will focus on competitive Senate and governors races with an initial cost of $20 million. Planned Parenthood Action Fund (PPAF) will initially target races in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, though that roster could change as the election cycle evolves. The organization believes it can have the biggest impact in these races, which could shift the balance in the Senate and in the states. The campaign will involve digital and TV ads, direct mail and door canvassing. Read more here. Trump official says unaccompanied minors don't have constitutional right to abortions The Trump administration official who has denied abortions to unaccompanied minors in U.S. custody said he does not believe they have a constitutional right to the procedure. Scott Lloyd, the director of the Department of Health and Human Services's Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which cares for minors who enter the country without their parents, denied seven abortion requests between March and Dec. 19, 2017, according to documents released by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which is suing the administration over the policy. In a deposition Lloyd gave in December, he replied "yes" when asked if he believed unaccompanied minors have "no constitutional right to abortion." The ACLU has battled the Trump administration over the policy, representing four pregnant unaccompanied minors who had been blocked from getting abortions. The new policy represents a significant departure from how previous administrations handled pregnant unaccompanied minors in U.S. custody seeking abortions. Read more here. More... Top Dem calls for Lloyd to resign Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on Thursday called for the resignation of Scott Lloyd. "Under Scott Lloyd's leadership, an office tasked with caring for young, vulnerable women in our country's custody has been turned into an 'ad hoc' testing ground for the Trump-Pence plan to interfere with women's most personal health care decisions and take away women's constitutional right to safe, legal abortion," Murray, ranking Democrat of the Senate Health Committee, said in a statement Thursday. Read more here. Poll: ObamaCare favorability reaches all-time high The favorable rating for ObamaCare has reached its highest level since the law was enacted in 2010, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) poll. The poll finds that 54 percent of the public has a favorable view of the law, compared to 42 percent who have an unfavorable view. That is the highest favorable rating in a KFF poll since it began asking the question in 2010. The rise is driven by independents, the KFF found, with 55 percent now having a favorable view of the law, a significant jump from 48 percent last month. Nearly eight in ten Republicans still have an unfavorable view of the law. Read more here. Hatch: ObamaCare supporters are 'the stupidest, dumbass people I've ever met' Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) on Thursday called ObamaCare supporters "the stupidest, dumbass people" he's ever met. Orrin made the comments during a speech at the American Enterprise Institute about the GOP tax overhaul, which repealed the ObamaCare individual mandate. "[We] finally did away with the individual mandate tax that was established under that wonderful bill called ObamaCare," Hatch said during his remarks. "Now, if you didn't catch on, I was being very sarcastic. That was the stupidest, dumbass bill that I've ever seen." "Some of you may have loved it," he continued. "If you do, you are one of the stupidest, dumbass people I've ever met. And there are a lot of them up there on Capitol Hill from time to time." A spokesman for Hatch told the Deseret News that the comments were "obviously" a joke. Read more here. What we're reading Uber and Lyft think they can solve one of medicine's biggest problems (The Washington Post) Tens of thousands of Medicaid recipients skip paying new premiums (Kaiser Health News) People with pre-existing conditions could face tough times ahead (CNN) FDA approves Sorrento's non-opioid painkiller patch, shares jump (Reuters) State by state Rules for backup power for nursing homes go to Florida House (Associated Press) Family convicted in health care fraud conspiracy in 3 states (Associated Press) Medical pot helps with chronic pain, Minnesota patients report (Star Tribune) | 
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