The American Nurses Association (ANA) applauds the introduction of legislation to bring much needed reform to our nation’s chemical policy. The Toxic Chemicals Safety Act of 2010 (H.R. 5820), introduced by Congressmen Bobby Rush (D-IL) and Henry Waxman (D-CA), would make much needed changes to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), such as requiring publicly available safety and health data on chemicals, and putting the burden on the industry to prove that chemicals are safe in order stay on the market.

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On Tuesday, August 10, President Barack Obama signed into law a $26 billion plan to save the jobs of thousands of teachers, government workers, and to extend increased Medicaid assistance to states. The signature came after a rare move when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called back members from their traditional August break to vote on the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act.

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As the August recess quickly comes to a close the 2010 mid-term elections are heating up. Many Members of Congress will be returning to Washington in the following weeks uncertain as ever if they’ll even be back in Congress next year. Historically the party of the sitting President loses seats during mid-term elections, but this is shaping up to be much worse than the normal 15-20 seats.

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This summer we saw a flurry of activity within agencies of the Obama Administration to produce rules implementing many provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). These were in addition to, or sometimes included within, the standing framework of Medicare payment system updates which must be updated by regulation on an annual basis. While ACA’s programs and changes will be phased in over a period of years, with completion in 2014, federal health agencies have wasted no time hammering out the details. Numerous proposed rules, and even some interim final rules, have been issued – many with comment periods shorter than the customary 30 to 60 days from publication in the Federal Register. ANA’s Department of Government Affairs is teaming up with content experts in Nursing Practice and Policy to bring the nursing perspective to this process through written comments and meetings with agency officials. In addition, ANA’s National Center for Nursing Quality has continued to advocate for adoption of nursing-sensitive care measures in quality reporting by hospitals, while the Center for Environmental and Occupational Health has been busy working to create a healthier environment for nurses and patients.

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On July 22, 2010 Rose Gonzalez, MPS, RN, Director of Government Affairs and member of the Culturally Competent Nursing Modules Project Advisory Committee provided a workshop at the 35th Annual Conference of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) held in Washington, DC. NAHN™ was founded in 1975 and is committed to improving the quality of health and nursing care of Hispanic consumers and toward providing equal access to educational, professional, and economic opportunities for Hispanic nurses.

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The 2010 Nurse Leaders in Native Care Conference was held at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC from July 19-23, 2010. The conference theme was “Transforming Indian Health Care through Nursing Leadership.” Nurses representing nurse executives, directors of public health nurses, public health nurses, advanced practice nurses and nurses working in Indian Health, Tribal and Urban programs from across the country were in attendance.

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