by Elizabeth Troutman | Apr 6, 2024 | News
By Elizabeth Troutman |
Newly introduced legislation would allow opioid, cocaine, methamphetamine, and alcohol to be eligible for an FDA breakthrough therapy designation in order to expedite the development and review of treatments.
U.S. Representative David Schweikert introduced the Substance Therapy Designation Act on April 1. The bill aims to ensure that the designation process for such treatments receives an even further fast-track.
“In the month of March alone, the United States Border Patrol has seized almost 15,000 pounds of controlled substances,” Schweikert said. “With the Substance Therapy Designation Act, I hope to be able to save more children that are falling victim to the continuing influx of these illicit drugs. This bill speaks to my continuing fixation of making our brothers and sisters healthier, while at the same time, promoting the safety and treatment from these addictive substances.”
Schweikert proposed the bill in response to Arizona’s increase in fentanyl coming across its border with Mexico illegally under the Biden administration’s border crisis. In the Nogales sector, Customs and Border Protection reported that it has seized over 8.5 million fentanyl pills since December 2023.
The total cost for opioid-related hospitalizations was $2.2 billion in 2022, a report from the Arizona Department of Health Services shows. Fentanyl is reportedly the most common component in many Arizona opioid overdoses. An average of three people die per day from fentanyl overdoses in Maricopa County.
Schweikert’s bill requires the Health and Human Services Secretary to grant priority review to substance abuse treatments and a fast-track designation to opioid, cocaine, methamphetamine, and alcohol treatments.
A number of treatments for substance abuse therapy are undergoing clinical trials. The first vaccine to combat cocaine addiction was formulated at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil.
A research team at the University of Houston plans to start manufacturing a clinical-grade vaccine that targets fentanyl after trials conducted with immunized rats succeeded. The vaccine blocks fentanyl from entering the brain.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
by Elizabeth Troutman | Mar 25, 2024 | Economy, News
By Elizabeth Troutman |
Inflation persists due to record levels of spending over the past three years, according to Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., in a speech on the House floor Thursday night.
Schweikert said the total deficit spending for FY24 will be dramatically higher than both the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) initially projected if the national debt continues to increase at the current pace of over $99,000 per second.
Last May, Congressional fights over the next speaker overshadowed the greater concern, the national debt, Schweikert said.
“And think of this — in that time, we were fighting over like $16 billion,” he said. “We’re borrowing about $9 billion a day. So we’ve gone how many months, and we’ve never gotten around to actually working on the real problems because of the theatrics around here.”
As a result, the Scottsdale-Phoenix area resident said the Congressional Budget Office missed its FY24 deficit spending projection by $1 trillion.
Interest spending alone is projected to top $1 trillion this fiscal year, he said.
“When I came here a couple of months ago and said we could be heading for $1 trillion [in interest spending], I got mocked. I even saw my colleagues go, ‘Schweikert, you’ve got to stop making things up!’ Well, turns out I’m right,” he said.
“We will spend all day fighting over a few million here, which is important, and I am willing to cut these things, but we’re picking up pennies off the ground as the avalanche is crushing us,” he continued. “Because that same day we fought over those millions, we borrowed $9 billion a day when we are fighting over millions. Understand, $1 trillion has 12 zeros. Start to work your zeros and understand the scale.”
Addressing inflation, Schweikert said America is paying the price for spending money in ways that did not actually spike productivity. He said subsidizing things does not yield the most efficient and cheap way to produce them.
Schweikert advocated for a level of competition so the best, fastest product is rewarded.
“The last two months, [inflation] hasn’t been going down the way it’s supposed to,” he said. “So expect these interest rates I just showed you to continue. And if you live in my neighborhood, if you live in the Scottsdale-Phoenix area — wonderful area, absolutely incredibly beautiful this time of year. From January 2021 to two months ago, if you’re not making 23.6% more, you are poorer today than you were in January 2021.”
Making Americans less sick with new healthcare technology is one of the most powerful things we could do to lower the national debt, he said. Six weeks ago, the FDA approved the first cure to sickle cell anemia.
“Artificial intelligence is about to have a revolution in bringing cures to market dramatically faster,” Schweikert stated. “We’ve actually now had the first couple of AI drugs designed to make it through the FDA.”
Schweikert said policies can make it possible to bring new drugs to the market without costing $100 million.
“Do we think about things we could do in farm policy and nutrition policy in helping our brothers and sisters live better, healthier, more prosperous, [improve their] ability to join the labor force, maybe family formation, crushing income inequality,” he asked his fellow congress members.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
by Elizabeth Troutman | Mar 17, 2024 | Economy, News
By Elizabeth Troutman |
Two House Republicans and one Democrat from Arizona wrote to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel asking the agency to reconsider its decision to subject the Arizona Families Tax Rebate Program to federal income taxation.
Representatives David Schweikert, R-Ariz., Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., and Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., sent the letter Wednesday.
“We urge the IRS to reconsider its determination and provide expedited relief to compliant Arizonan taxpayers who have already filed their 2023 tax returns,” the three wrote.
More than 700,000 Arizona taxpayers were eligible to receive a one-time tax rebate as the state continues to recover from historic inflation levels that placed severe financial strain on families across the state, according to the representatives’ news release.
“The country is poorer now than it was three years ago, and Arizonans are no different, facing the brunt of financial pressure with supermarket prices now nearly 25% higher than in January 2020, for example,” the letter says. “State officials acted in good faith with the reasonably available information to provide more than 700,000 households with much-needed relief from price increases on everyday goods and services.”
Tax rebates enacted by 21 states were determined to be tax exempt in guidance issued by the IRS in February 2023, Schweikert, Ciscomani, and Stanton wrote. Though Arizona’s tax rebate wasn’t signed into law for another three months, the IRS extended its decision to make the rebate taxable past the period when the state issued payments, according to the letter.
“In December 2023, the IRS relayed its decision orally through a video meeting, providing no written explanation until February 15, 2024, eighteen days after the start of tax season, and only in response to a letter from the Arizona Attorney General challenging the decision,” the letter says.
Arizona taxpayers are estimated to owe $20.8 million in extra federal taxes due to the IRS’ inconsistent rationale in failing to specify the factual and legal basis for the 21 states’ rebates and payments that were deemed nontaxable in 2022, according to the representatives.
“The inconsistency and delay in communication have resulted in undue financial strain on Arizonans,” the letter says.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
by Elizabeth Troutman | Mar 13, 2024 | News
By Elizabeth Troutman |
A bill introduced by Republican Rep. David Schweikert aims to prevent wasted taxpayer dollars on Defense Department audit errors.
The Algorithms Utilized to Detect Institutional Transactions (AUDIT) Act ensures the audit of the Department of Defense’s financial statements is conducted using artificial intelligence to help streamline the internal review process. It also mandates that the technology be developed by both the secretary of defense and Inspector general of the Department of Defense.
“Since 2018, the federal government has spent nearly $1 billion annually trying to audit the Department of Defense, and it costs substantially more to correct the mistakes after its completion,” Schweikert said in a statement. “This legislation helps accelerate the adoption of innovative auditing tools to reduce costs and foster creative solutions that will increase government accountability.
The Pentagon employs 2.9 million people and has over half a million assets worth $3.8 trillion, while its liabilities total $4 trillion, according to Schweikert’s news release. This means personnel must count every single piece of inventory, including military equipment, supplies, and property. In 2019, DOD’s audit totaled $428 million in costs. Correcting the errors after the audit increased the costs by an additional $472 million.
Since it first started auditing itself in 2018, the Defense Department has failed to achieve a clean financial audit each year The 2023 audit required 1,600 auditors and 700 site visits to complete, costing $187 billion and earning a “disclaimer of opinion” rating. This means the department was unable to provide enough financial information to auditors for them to form an opinion.
The bill requires the defense secretary to retire outdated financial management systems that have led to the Pentagon failing six consecutive audits, and directs the secretary to adopt newer technology to facilitate the audit.
“I look forward to working with my colleagues to help modernize how Congress conducts such oversight to protect hardworking taxpayers,” Schweikert said.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
by Elizabeth Troutman | Mar 6, 2024 | News
By Elizabeth Troutman |
Congressman David Schweikert’s new bill would help places of worship and other nonprofit organizations protect themselves from danger.
The Warranting of Religious Spaces to Handle Increased Protection (WORSHIP) Act provides greater flexibility to places of worship and other nonprofit organizations receiving funding from FEMA’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) to bolster security measures against terrorist threats and antisemitic incidents.
“Our communities depend on places of worship to come together and embrace shared beliefs throughout life. No one should feel threatened when exercising their religious liberty, which is fundamentally protected by the First Amendment,” Schweikert, a Republican, said.
Antisemitic incidents in the U.S. increased by 360% in the first three months after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). This is more than triple the number of incidents from the same period last year.
A minimum of 628 reported cases were against synagogues and Jewish community centers, and the preliminary three-month total was higher than the total number of antisemitic incidents tallied in any year over the last decade except for 2022.
The Grand Canyon state has seen its own uptick in antisemitic incidents, as the ADL’s Arizona regional office reported an 86% increase in antisemitic incidents over the past year. The FBI arrested a man for allegedly threatening to execute a Scottsdale rabbi in November.
Crimes motivated by religious bias increased by more than 28% from 2021 to 2022, according to the 2022 Hate Crime Statistics Report released by the FBI. Religion was in the top three bias categories due to the volume of reported hate crime incidents, with the highest religious bias being anti-Jewish.
“I’ve always said my faith motivates me, and I’m proud to introduce this commonsense legislation that will provide our faith-based communities the resources they need to harden security and improve safety,” Schweikert said. “I look forward to working with my colleagues to advance this bill.”
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
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