PAINFUL POLICY –When the drug company Merck failed to tell the public about health risks associated with the painkiller, Vioxx, over 50,000 people suffered fatal heart attacks and strokes as a result.

TexPIRG Decries U.S. House Vote On Student Aid Cut

Despite strong opposition from TexPIRG and other state PIRGs, the U.S. House voted to cut $12 billion from college student loan programs, the largest cut in the history of the programs.  

The Feb. 1 vote could scarcely have been closer, with 216 voting for and 214 voting against the cut, which came as part of the budget reconciliation bill.

“The House completed the largest raid on student aid in history,” explained TexPIRG’s national Higher Education Advocate Luke Swarthout. “At a time when college costs continue to rise and students are going deeper into a financial hole, Congress has decided to use students and families to pay for other priorities.”

FDA Lets Drug Makers Off The Hook

In a sweeping change to longstanding policies, the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) new drug-labeling rules would give drug makers protection from lawsuits filed in state court.

The change comes despite the lesson of unsafe drugs like Vioxx, which find their way to the pharmacist’s shelves even after safety trials expose dangerous side effects. There have been 60,000 deaths from Vioxx-associated heart attacks. According to FDA whistleblower Dr. David Graham, the “FDA is part of the problem. The FDA’s new rule would shield drug makers from the only recourse for consumers, by throwing out the claims of consumers even if the drug maker defied state law, or if the FDA review was proven inadequate.

House Rolls Back Food Safety Laws

On March 8, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 283 to 139, to eliminate well over a hundred different state food safety laws including Texas laws regulating milk and shellfish safety.

In addition to nullifying these proven food safety laws already on the books, the bill would forever tie the hands of states and municipalities on a range of emerging food safety issues, whether or not the federal government has addressed public health concerns.

Among other things, states and localities would not be able to regulate and label food products that contain irradiated ingredients, pesticides, antibiotics, or genetically modified organisms.

The legislation deprives states and localities of the right to protect their citizens while assigning responsibility for food safety to an under-funded federal bureaucracy.

“It’s shocking that in the days of mad cow disease and the bird flu, the food industry has asked its allies in Congress to put the kibosh on any state that dares to do more on food safety than the federal government,” said Ed Mierzwinski, TexPIRG’s federal consumer advocate. On March 1, Attorney General Greg Abbott joined 38 other state attorneys general in a letter to Congress opposing the bill.

IRS Rule Would Allow Sale Of Private Tax Records

On March 8, TexPIRG joined with other consumer organizations to call upon the Internal Revenue Service to drop a shocking proposal that violates the privacy of Americans and opens the door to identity thieves.

The rule would allow companies that prepare tax returns to share, and even sell confidential taxpayer information to third party marketers and database brokers. Tax returns contain sensitive, personal financial information that most Americans don’t want to be released. Until now, taxpayers could trust that their returns would remain private.

The new regulations would be a boon for companies like ChoicePoint that make millions selling personal information to marketers who then barrage consumers with advertising.

It could also aid identity thieves, as a tax return contains personal information that is used in identity theft.

The Houston Chronicle editorialized against the proposal, stating “IRS officials attempt to slip the matter past the public without a thorough airing only confirms the scheme’s inherent undesirability.”