Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Man Shot During 2024 Trump Assassination Attempt In Pennsylvania Has Died
James Copenhaver, one of three campaign rally attendees shot in 2024 during an assassination attempt on then-candidate Donald Trump, has died in Pittsburgh, his lawyer said Thursday. He was 76. Copenhaver was in the bleachers during the event in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a 20-year-old gunman opened fire from a nearby rooftop, grazing Trump鈥檚 right ear with one bullet. Copenhaver was struck in the arm and in the abdomen, wounds that left him with lingering injuries and walking with a cane. (Johnson and Carr Smyth, 9/25)
In other news about the Trump administration 鈥�
The American Medical Association and American Hospital Association are asking the Department of Homeland Security to exempt clinicians from a proposed $103,265 fee on H-1B visa petitions. The AMA warned the fee would make recruiting physicians to underserved areas 鈥渘ext to financially impossible.鈥� (Twenter, 9/24)
A group of Democratic lawmakers want answers from the Pentagon and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth following reports that roughly a dozen transgender service members never received separation pay following their forced exits from the military. (Mordowanec, 9/25)
The anti-abortion group Students for Life of America on Thursday filed a notice of intent to sue the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over alleged inaction over the Endangered Species Act, an escalation of the group鈥檚 years-long effort to use environmental laws to restrict abortion drugs. The organization alleges more than 50 tons of medical waste are flushed into water systems each year as a result of abortion drugs, causing significant environmental harm. Environmental scientists dispute that. (Weixel, 9/24)
The Food and Drug Administration has warned a major compounding pharmacy that it violated federal law by making copies of blockbuster weight-loss drugs in "inordinate amounts." The letter to Empower Pharmacy marks the first time the FDA has waded into a fierce debate about when a pharmacy's legitimate work of customizing a medication crosses the line into mass-copying of patented FDA-approved drugs. (Gilbert, 9/24)