American Heart Association Officials Outline Policy Agenda For 2008

Main Category: Cardiovascular / Cardiology
Article Date: 14 Jan 2008 - 6:00 PDT

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American Heart Association officials on Thursday outlined the policy agenda for the group in 2008, CQ HealthBeat reports.

Sue Nelson, vice president of federal advocacy for AHA, said the group will continue to support public health measures, such as legislation (S 2173, HR 3257) that seeks to promote physical education in schools to help reduce childhood obesity. According to AHA President Daniel Jones, increased physical education in schools would help prevent "an explosion of diabetes, obesity and heart disease" among children.

AHA also will:

• Seek increased funds for NIH research and treatment;
  
  
• Support legislation (S 625, HR 1108) that would allow FDA to regulate tobacco products and advertisements and evaluate product claims; and
  
  
• Support legislation focused on the research and treatment of stroke (HR 477, S 999) and heart disease (HR 1014, S573).
  

Nelson said, "We all know this is going to be a very difficult political year" to pass such legislation because of the small majority that Democrats have in the Senate and political concerns related to the presidential election (Armstrong, CQ HealthBeat, 1/10).

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