Sunday, April 09, 2017

Weekend update

Congress is on a home work period for two weeks.  Judge Neil Gorsuch was confirmed as a U.S. Supreme Court justice on Friday.  Judge Gorsuch will be sworn in tomorrow.  Here's a link to the Week in Congress's report on last week's activities on Capitol Hill.

The Hill reported that the President has nominated "Neomi Rao, an associate law professor at George Mason University, was nominated to run the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)." The appointment requires Senate confirmation. Ms. Rao will play an important role in the President's administrative reform efforts. GWU Law Professor Jonathan Adler comments in the Washington Post's Volokh Conspiracy blog that
Trump’s selection of Rao suggests the administration is serious about regulatory reform, not merely reducing high-profile regulatory burdens. The selection of a well-respected administrative law expert further suggests the administration recognizes the need to be attentive to legal constraints on administrative action and that meaningful reforms require more than issuing a few executive orders. 
Healthcare IT News discusses an AHIMA Journal article asking whether HIPAA should be re-evaluated. HIPAA is now over 20 years old. The FEHBlog's advice would be to repeal the electronic transactions standard and code sets requirements in favor of industry oversight which works in banking and refocus HIPAA on privacy and security which are two appropriate topics for government regulation.



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