Coping with an increasingly global device and drug industry will require a paradigm shift that relies less on FDA’s own staff and more on data and resource sharing with other countries, the agency says.

U.S. regulators plan to outsource more inspections of overseas factories within the next decade after criticism from Congress about a lack of oversight for food and drugs made in other countries.

Reauthorization of FDA user fees, scheduled for consideration by Congress next year, is expected to pass on a largely bipartisan basis and is unlikely to involve the kind of political controversy currently surrounding the Obama administration’s healthcare legislation.

Wisconsin Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin is a leader in the effort to reopen the national health care debate in the arena of critical care – emergency or life-sustaining care provided in emergency rooms or intensive care units. The effort is led by a national panel of specialists and advocates, the Roundtable on U.S. Critical Care Policy. A lobbying firm employed by the group says its members formed in part because they felt critical care was overlooked in the reform of America’s health care system.

WASHINGTON DC – Venn Strategies, LLC, a leading national government relations and public affairs firm, today announced it has been ranked among the fastest-growing private firms in America by Inc. magazine.

WASHINGTON DC – Venn Strategies, LLC, a leading public affairs and government relations firm in Washington, DC, today announced that a newly restructured senior management team will lead clients in its expert advocacy, issue management, coalition management and strategic advisory services.

As National Journal reported on Dec. 17, Penny Lee, then a senior adviser to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told colleagues she was leaving Capitol Hill for a job in the private sector, but didn’t name her new employer.

Penny Lee, who until late last year was a top aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), has joined the lobbying and consulting firm Venn Strategies.

Lee, who is considered one of the hot Hill commodities heading to K Street, will be a principal in the firm starting Monday.