Safeway, the California-based grocery chain, has become an unusually influential player in the debate over health care reform, trumpeting its success in improving worker health while controlling the rising cost of health plans. This year, the company began offering a 20 percent discount on premiums for workers meeting certain fitness and health goals; it is also pushing Congress to change the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act to allow premium discounts of up to 50 percent.
That stance is drawing flack from patients' advocates, the elderly and some labor unions, who say it would allow group insurance plans to discriminate against those with health problems -- the exact opposite of the broader goals of health care reform. National Journal recently spoke with Safeway's senior vice president in charge of health initiatives, Ken Shachmut, about the company's high-profile health and wellness initiatives. Edited excerpts of the interview follow.
Continue reading Safeway Exec Touts Health Incentive Plan.
White House science and technology director John Holdren yesterday expressed optimism -- fueled in part by President Obama's speech to the U.N. on Tuesday -- that the Senate will pass an energy bill before the U.N. climate change talks in December. "It would be nice for the United States to be able to go to Copenhagen with the ingredients of a forward-looking national climate policy through both houses of the Congress," Holdren told a knot of reporters during a conference on energy competitiveness. Holdren said it wouldn't be detrimental if a bill didn't pass by December, but it would require the U.S. government to be a bit more "creative" with what it presents as its policy in Copenhagen. Edited excerpts of the interview can be read on NationalJournal.com's energy blog.
Since his election, President Obama has generally avoided the subject of race, but amid a heated national debate on health care, the issue has come up again. Most recently, former President Jimmy Carter asserted that the vehement backlash against health reform had more to do with the color of Obama's skin than his policies.
This year also marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous, a journalist and community organizer by trade, sat down with reporters from National Journal and The Atlantic to discuss where the organization is headed and the issue of race in the age of Obama. Edited excerpts follow.
Continue reading NAACP Enters Second Century In Age Of Obama.
In June, President Obama addressed the American Medical Association and teed up the issue of malpractice reform. He said doctors should not have to practice while "constantly looking over their shoulders for fear of lawsuits." The AMA later endorsed House-passed health reform legislation. In a recent interview with National Journal, AMA president Dr. J. James Rohack applauded the move by the administration to explore the merits of malpractice reforms in various states. Edited excerpts follow.
Continue reading Doctors Hail Promise Of Tort Reform.
The Obama administration on Thursday formally shelved plans to base a ballistic missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. The plan had been the centerpiece of former President Bush's nuclear defense policy, and conservatives have accused President Obama of kowtowing to Russia. But Robert Legvold, a professor of political science at Columbia University and an expert on U.S.-Russia relations, disagrees. Legvold spoke with NationalJournal.com this morning about what the U.S. can expect (or not expect) in return, how the decision will play in Europe and where Iran fits in.
Continue reading Will Thaw Follow Obama's Missile Backtrack?.
As the Peace Corps approaches its 50th anniversary, the service program is at something of a crossroads. The agency never fulfilled President Kennedy's dream of sending 100,000 Americans abroad every year, and it has been criticized for parachuting too many inexperienced college grads into development jobs they aren't prepared for. But friends in Congress have secured a 10 percent budget increase for the Peace Corps, and some of the agency's boosters are hoping for more soon.
Enter Aaron Williams, a volunteer in the Caribbean in the late-1960s who has now returned to lead the agency. He spoke to NationalJournal.com's David Gauvey Herbert about putting a price tag on the Peace Corps experience, the dangers of tying the agency too closely to American foreign policy and his own experience in the Dominican Republic.
Continue reading As The Peace Corps Turns 50, What Now?.
Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., has become a YouTube star after his opening statement in committee on the House health care bill, which has now received more than 3.1 million hits on YouTube. The conservative Republican, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee's subcommittee on health, saw his bill to expand health savings accounts to low-income families signed into law in 2006. After his YouTube success, Rogers has been outspoken about President Obama's health care reform, and now he plans to introduce his own compromise bill.
NationalJournal.com recently spoke with Rogers about the prospects for a bipartisan bill, Obama's address to the joint session, the public option and why his video has been so popular.
Continue reading Hope For Bipartisanship On Health Care?.
In hopes of stimulating more private investment and competition in nuclear energy, a handful of House Republicans recently introduced a bill that would mandate the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to expedite its nuclear reactor review process for applications that meet certain criteria while helping to introduce more reactors into the marketplace.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania, stresses the importance of blending more nuclear power into the nation's energy mix. Nuclear energy generates 20 percent of the nation's electricity and 35 percent of Pennsylvania's, but its development has stagnated for the last 30 years. Many observers trace that back to the Three Mile Island disaster in 1979; no one died in that partial core meltdown, but it remains the country's most significant nuclear emergency. The congressional district that's home to the plant borders Pitts'.
NationalJournal.com recently talked with Pitts to find out more about the bill and ask him to respond to concerns of both industry experts and those that NRC Chairman Greg Jaczko expressed in another interview with NationalJournal.com.
Continue reading A Quicker Path To Approval For New Reactors.
In his most expansive comments since President Obama appointed him chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in May, Greg Jaczko spoke recently with NationalJournal.com's Amy Harder at the agency's headquarters in Rockville, Md. The new chairman, who was nominated to the commission in 2005 and worked previously as science adviser to Senate Majority Harry Reid, D-Nev., discussed the current bottleneck in new reactor applications -- which Republicans are trying to speed up -- as well as the agency's role in nuclear waste disposal.
Continue reading NRC At Center Of Nuclear Regulatory Bottleneck.
Paul Pastorek, Louisiana's state schools superintendent since 2007, came to Washington last week to serve on a panel for a public hearing about school improvement. Pastorek joined a cast of education experts from across the country Sept. 2 in the first of a series of events sponsored by the Aspen Institute's bipartisan Commission on No Child Left Behind. The goal of the series is to generate a dialogue about the academic health of our country and form recommendations for the upcoming reauthorization of NCLB.
National Journal spoke with Pastorek about his views on NCLB and issues unique to rural schools.
Continue reading Even Footing For Schools And Students.
Education policy expert Michael Lomax presided over a public hearing on improving schools held last week by the Aspen Institute's bipartisan Commission on No Child Left Behind. Lomax is president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund and a member of the commission. "We're gearing up for a major national conversation about the academic health of our country," Lomax said. The Sept. 2 hearing was the first in a series leading up to a report on improving NCLB during its upcoming reauthorization process.
National Journal caught up with Lomax before the event to hear his views on school improvement and the future of NCLB.
Continue reading Making College The Standard For Students.
Christine Todd Whitman, a longtime moderate Republican, has never been shy about sharing her concerns over her party. With the national mood now reminding some observers of 1993 -- when Whitman won the New Jersey governorship ahead of 1994's powerful GOP wave in Congress -- she has some advice for the national party as it looks to take advantage of President Obama's slide in the polls.
NationalJournal.com recently spoke with Whitman about enthusiasm in the GOP's base and how the party is faring in the health care debate. The former Environmental Protection Agency administrator also spoke about the House climate change bill championed by Democrats Henry Waxman of California and Edward Markey of Massachusetts.
Continue reading The Right Way For The GOP To Go After Obama.
Steve Barr, founder of Green Dot Public Schools, high-performing charter schools based in Los Angeles, was in Washington on Sept. 2 as a witness for a public hearing on school improvement. The event was sponsored by the Aspen Institute's Commission on No Child Left Behind, a bipartisan effort chaired by former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson (R) and former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes (D). Barr shared his expertise on successful strategies and challenges. Among other things, he emphasized the need for "a convergence of tribes" -- that is to say, bringing together different interest groups in order to achieve meaningful education reform.
National Journal sat down with Barr to pick his brain on school improvement and the best approaches for the upcoming reauthorization of NCLB.
Continue reading Using NCLB To Retool Struggling Schools.
Outgoing AFL-CIO President John Sweeney sat down with National Journal's James A. Barnes on Wednesday to discuss his 14-year tenure at the helm of organized labor, the challenges it faces today, the 2005 defection of several major unions from the AFL-CIO and his thoughts on his successor, Secretary Treasurer Richard Trumka.
Continue reading Who Will Bring The Change Labor Needs?.
In 2008, Democrat Tom Perriello had one of the cycle's biggest upsets as he unseated Republican incumbent Virgil Goode in Virginia's 5th Congressional District, which went to John McCain in the presidential race. Now, what was already an against-all-odds re-election bid is even more precarious as Obama's health care reform effort and conservative protests are placing Perriello and others like him between a rock and a hard place.
NationalJournal.com recently sat down with the Cook Political Report's David Wasserman to discuss Democrats' outlook in House races in 2010. Wasserman talked about the conditions that led to Perriello's victory in 2008 and the potential of a viable congressional candidate emerging from the conservative grass roots.
For more on Republicans' chances in 2010, including video clips from Wasserman's interview, watch NationalJournal.com's multimedia report.
Continue reading A 'Tailor-Made' Midterm For Republicans?.
