116th Congress: House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee gets new leader, four new Democrats, one new Republican

 The 116th Congress began on January 3rd, 2019, bringing new members to House and Senate committees addressing global health policies and funding. Science Speaks introduces you to those new members in this series. With a Democratic majority, the 116th Congress sees new leadership  of the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, as well as five new subcommittee members -- four Democrats, and one Republican. From a former deputy secretary for a state health department to a billionaire tech entrepreneur with a charitable family foundation, they bring diverse experiences to the subcommittee that oversees the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- with legislative authority over health care, biomedical research and development, and food, drug, and device safety.

Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA) - Elected to the House in 1992, Rep. Eshoo took her seat on the subcommittee in 1995 and notes in her announcement of her appointment as subcommittee chair, that she has served on the Health Subcommittee for 14 of her 24 years on the committee. She has said she sees the subcommittee leadership post as an opportunity to "help lead the effort in the House to strengthen the Affordable Care Act, reduce the price of prescription drugs, and continue to make critically important investments in the National Institutes of Health.” Over her time on the subcommittee, she has demonstrated investment in global infectious disease responses and health security. Since taking the subcommittee leadership post, she joined Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) in calling  for a briefing from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2006 she worked with Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), to author bipartisan legislation to establish the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority that is dedicated to building medical countermeasures to outbreaks of pandemic potential. She co-sponsored the PAHPA reauthorization that passed the House Wednesday. Now leading the subcommittee charged overseeing the pharmaceutical industry, the volume of campaign contributions she has received from the pharmaceutical industry, as well as a tepid approach to drug pricing reform led her to be targeted by the political action committee Patients For Affordable Drugs Action.