Source: Flickr; Republicanconference (www.flickr.com/photos/republicanconference)

On the heels of the Minnesota Independent story last week about U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen’s cozy financial relationship with the medical device industry, the New York Times reported Tuesday that some health professionals are alarmed by Paulsen’s push to relax Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversight.

“They have this unwritten assumption that every new device is innovative,” Dr. Rita Redberg, who is the editor of the Archives of Internal Medicine, said, referring to the venture capital funds. But some devices, she said, “are killing people or causing significant harm.”

The Times reports that 10 bills to speed up the FDA’s medical device approval process have already been introduced by House Republicans this month. In the Senate, Sen. Amy Klobuchar has introduced a similar bill.

The U.S. House of Representatives has held four hearings on F.D.A. device approval procedures since February, with the vast majority of witnesses being “investors, entrepreneurs, industry consultants, trade group officials or patients who said that agency delays in approving a device had harmed them or a loved one,” according to the New York Times. No one who was harmed by a faulty device was invited to testify.

As the Minnesota Independent reported last week, Paulsen has been rewarded for his advocacy for the industry with campaign donations from company PACs and executives. The Congressman is currently sitting on $900,000, according to Federal Election Commission records. The medical device and drug industry gives more generously to Paulsen than to other candidates or PACs in the district, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics.

The Times story shows a steep increase in donations from venture capitalists with an interest in health care after Paulsen testified to Congress in June that FDA processes should be streamlined.

As the Minnesota Independent reported, Paulsen has seen substantial increases in donations from the entire medical device industry since he became a member of the influential House Ways and Means Committee, with one medical private equity firm crowing that “his increasingly high profile in Congress may help bring additional visibility to the medtech sector.”

As co-chair of the House Medical Technology Caucus, U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen has battled for the medical devices industry since he took office in 2009. Industry Political Action Committees (PACs) and executives have responded to his advocacy with a deluge of campaign donations, helping to make Paulsen the lead fundraiser in Minnesota’s House delegation.

Influx of medical device and drug industry cash
Already in this election cycle, Paulsen is the ninth most favored candidate in the House of Representatives for the drug and medical device industry, according to a breakdown by the Center for Responsive Politics. Paulsen was recently appointed to the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. In the 2012 election cycle, he’s already showing a 68 percent increase in donations from individuals and PACs associated with the pharmaceutical and medical device industries over the 2010 cycle.

A substantial portion of Paulsen’s fundraising this election cycle has come from executives at companies like Medtronic, Boston Scientific and 3M’s medical division. In the last financial quarter, which ended at the close of September, five executives at Medtronic pitched in $2,750, supplementing the additional $3,000 from the company’s PAC. Boston Scientific executives pitched in $4,500. Paulsen also received donations from smaller operations, like the $1,750 given by a manager at Hampshire Labs, which sells prostate and “male enhancement” supplements.

Thomas Fogarty also maxed out his yearly contribution to the candidate at $5,000, according to quarterly disclosure records filed with the Federal Election Commission. Although Fogarty lists himself on Paulsen’s disclosure as a self-employed physician, he’s also president of Fogarty Research & Development and has founded or co-founded 30 companies related to medical technology or devices, according to his bio at Stanford University, where he’s a professor.

A host of medical PACs also contributed to Paulsen’s war-chest this last financial quarter. WellPAC run by WellPoint, a health plan company that’s part of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, gave $2,500. Zimmer Inc. PAC, which pushes the interests of an Indiana-based company that creates artificial joints and other medical technology, gave $1,000.

Paulsen now has more than $900,000 on hand, according to Federal Election Commission records released last weekend. Donations from the medical device and drug industry, which gives more generously to Paulsen than to other candidates or PACs in the district, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics, helped put Paulsen at the top of the heap in terms of the Minnesota House delegation’s fundraising.

Source: Flickr; Republicanconference (www.flickr.com/photos/republicanconference)

“Tireless efforts” to support medical device industry
By all accounts, Paulsen has been a good advocate for the industry, which has deep roots in Minnesota. Last year, he received the 2010 Medical Device Manufacturer’s Association (MDMA) Chairman’s Award for “his tireless efforts to support the innovative and job-creating medical device industry.”

Paulsen has also increased the visibility of the medical device caucus, launching a website this March that a press release said ”expands our connectivity and engagement with medical technology companies, industry experts, and doctors and patients who use the innovative products the industry creates.”

In an Oct. 3 editorial at Roll Call, Paulsen condemned what he described as a “new medical device excise tax that will eliminate more than 40,000 well-paying jobs and imperil America’s global competitiveness in one of our leading industrial and technological sectors.”

Paulsen has introduced legislation aimed at speeding up the Food and Drug Administration approval process. And in speeches to industry groups, Paulsen has vowed to revamp the agency, according to a MinnPost account of Paulsen’s May speech to “400 venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and industry professionals” at the MedTech Investing Conference.

Paulsen told Minnesota Public Radio this week that Washington doesn’t have “too many strong voices” supporting the industry.

“We’re going to propose legislation that modernizes the FDA so that this industry remains strong,” he said. “Companies don’t mind if [FDA review] is rigorous. They want to make sure it’s relevant.”

A March posting on a medical private equity firm’s blog noted the new medical technology caucus website and Paulsen’s appointment to the House Ways and Means Committee at the end of last year: “Rep. Paulsen has proven himself dedicated to innovation and the issues facing the medical device industry, and his increasingly high profile in Congress may help bring additional visibility to the medtech sector.”

The Money Trail will be a regular feature looking at the special interests that fund our state’s politicians. If you have tips or suggestions, please sent them to tips@minnesotaindependent.com.

Parry, a relative newcomer to politics, won his seat in the Minnesota state Senate in a special election in February 2010 and then won re-election that November. He’s the owner of a pizza restaurant in Waseca.

Parry is facing a host of potential competitors for the GOP endorsement, but on Monday received the support of GOP State Party Deputy Chair Michael Brodkorb, who resigned to advise Parry’s campaign.

MPR reports that State DFL Chair Ken Martin slammed Parry as “an angry, ultra conservative Tea-Party Republican more concerned with pandering to the right wing and special interests than he is with working to improve our state economy, create jobs or build a more prosperous future for middle-class families.”

Parry’s become known in Minnesota politics for his liberal and incendiary use of Twitter. He created a minor national incident when he was running for his current seat and tweeted that President Obama “is a power hungry arrogant black man.”

Another tweet at the time read, “What’s with the Dems and Pedophiles?”

During the 2011 state government shutdown, Parry tweeted that he thought Gov. Mark Dayton should resign.

“With all due respect, Mondale and Carlson need to stay in their rockers unless they can get Dayton to do the right thing. … RESIGN!” he tweeted.

That led to a strong rebuke from the editorial boards of newspapers in his district.

On the legislative front, Parry proposed a constitutional amendment on Minnesota sovereignty.

The bill would have made Minnesota the first state to require a two-thirds majority vote in the legislature to approve federal laws affecting the state. “Minnesotans enjoy inherent, natural, God-given rights,” the bill read, and “Citizens of Minnesota are sovereign individuals, subject to Minnesota law and immune from any federal laws that exceed the federal government’s enumerated constitutional powers.”

Amid constant congressional squabbling over spending and the deficit in Congress, 59 Democrats and Republicans have united in pledging to spend more money for research and prevention efforts to combat the spread of AIDS domestically and worldwide.

The Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus, spurred by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), was formerly launched Thursday during a press briefing on Capitol Hill. U.S. Reps. Jim McDermott (D-Calif.) and Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) joined Lee and White House officials, experts and advocacy leaders in introducing the caucus and its funding proposals. No members of the Minnesota congressional delegation are involved.

“I remember when having AIDS was a death sentence,” McDermott said, noting that the new caucus was the most significant AIDS-prevention effort since the Bush administration’s AIDS task force. “Believe me, there will be people looking at the AIDS budget [who will say], ‘Why are we putting money into that [during this] fiscal crisis.”

Franks identified himself as one of the most fiscally-conservative members of the House as a way of explaining why he supported the caucus’ AIDS-prevention efforts.

U.S. Reps. Jim McDermott (D-Calif.), Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) introduce Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus.

“My two top priorities as co-chair of the HIV/AIDS Caucus are to better enable faith-based organizations to implement life-saving medical services and to make significant strides so no child is born with HIV after 2015, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to bring attention to this important humanitarian issue,” he said.

Lee said the caucus will focus funding attention on the most vulnerable communities in the country, many of which are communities of color.

“This is the launch time for a bold movement to stamp HIV and AIDS, for once and for all, off the face of the earth,” said Lee, who has been working on AIDS-prevention efforts for the past three decades and managed to get the travel ban repealed in order to secure the International AIDS Conference in the U.S., to be held in Washington, D.C., in July 2012.

No mention was made of federal legislation Lee is currently working on to repeal state laws that criminalize individuals with HIV. The Iowa Independent’s sister site The Michigan Messenger has extensively reported on cases where HIV-positive individuals have been charged with felonies, such as the case of Daniel Allen from Clinton Township, Mich., who in 2009 was charged with bio-terrorism for biting his neighbor during what Allen alleged was a violent anti-gay attack. Because he was HIV-positive, Allen was charged with one count of “possession of use of a harmful device” in addition to various assault counts. The following year, the bio-terrorism charge was dropped, and Allen was sentenced to probation.

Lee’s communications director, Kristal DeKleer, told The Independent that Lee’s legislation, currently known as the “Repeal HIV Discrimination Act,” is still in the drafting stage. Currently, 34 states, including Iowa, have criminal statutes based on exposure to HIV.

In response to a direct question about HIV criminalization, Jeffrey Crowley, director of the Office of National AIDS Policy at the White House, said the Department of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — as part of the Obama administration’s National HIV/AIDS strategy introduced in 2010 and updated this past June — are currently gathering data to come up with a public-health approach of dealing with HIV disclosure laws. Ultimately, though, Crowley said it is a state issue and did not comment on Lee’s not-yet-introduced federal bill.

Crowley told The Independent that the CDC and the National Institutes of Health are prioritizing funding on research that targets populations, such as gay and bisexual men, identified as being at the greatest risk for contracting HIV, in addition to geographic areas where prevalence is highest. He said new information has led the CDC to change priorities (PDF), for example, shifting prevention efforts away from those who are HIV-negative to those who are HIV-positive.

Crowley said efforts are being made to strike a balance between what is better for the health and well-being of the individual HIV patient in addition to preventing others from being infected. He noted anti-retroviral treatment is always voluntary (though there have been instances where prisons have violated HIV-positive protocol) and said he thinks some groups have mischaracterized the federal government’s perceived intent of putting the interest of the nation over infected individuals, but Crowley emphasized it is better to treat patients early “before their immune system is damaged.”

The three caucus members said Thursday the goal is to have 6 million HIV-positive Americans in treatment by 2013.

Tinselyn Simms-Hall, policy and advocacy coordinator of The Women’s Collective, a D.C.-based AIDS-prevention advocacy group, told The Independent she hopes the increased HIV/AIDS-prevention funding reaches women in proportion to their infection rates. She said national focus is often on men who have sex with men, which sometimes prevents other at-risk groups from realizing they are at risk.

“AIDS has a huge impact on heterosexuality,” Simms-Hall said. “There is a large community of women affected [by this virus] who don’t realize there are resources out there.”

Rep. Keith Ellison sent a fundraising pitch to supporters on Monday calling out his newly announced challenger Lynne Torgerson for her comments calling him a “radical Muslim fundamentalist.” Torgerson, who announced her campaign at Tea Party Nation on Thursday, garnered only 3 percent against Ellison’s 69 percent in the last election.

“It’s clear that Torgerson intends to run a campaign based on hate, division, and fear,” Ellison said. “Just like in 2010, we’re not going to let our opponent’s divisive rhetoric set the tone of this campaign. Instead, we’re going to keep pushing for good jobs, affordable health care, and equality for all people.”

Ellison added, “Help defeat extremism by investing in our campaign. Unlike our opponent, we’ll continue organizing voters around our belief in liberty and justice for ALL.”

Torgerson has launched a campaign website and blog on which she describes herself as a “public speaker, lawyer, litigator, Constitutional expert, Congressional candidate, opinion writer, teacher and pro-Israel Christian who recently won Attorney of the Year. She wishes to educate, expose and stop the political ideological part of Islam and protect American freedoms of speech and religion.”

In 2009 she told the Minnesota Independent that she believes Muslims “have teachings that are essentially criminal, and her campaign site at the time, citing the terrorist attacks of 9/11, stated that “Islam [is] conducting an act of war against my country.”

Though Torgerson ran as an independent in 2010, she’s included many photos of herself with Republican elected officials and activists on her campaign’s Facebook page, including Tom Emmer, Sen. David Hann, Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch and Sen. Julianne Ortmann.

Lynne Torgerson announced on Thursday that she intends to challenge Rep. Keith Ellison for Congress in 2012 and noted that she based her decision on Ellison’s Muslim faith. Torgerson became a lightning rod in the 2010 campaign cycle for her controversial statements about Islam. Calling Ellison a “radical Islamist” yesterday, she announced her intention to run for the seat on Tea Party Nation.

“I, Lynne Torgerson, am running for Congress in Minnesota, against radical Islamist Keith Ellison. Keith Ellison fails to oppose banning Islamic Sharia law in the United States,” she wrote on the Tea Party Nation website (registration required). “He accuses people of trying to ban it as ‘conspiratorilists.’ Keith Ellison also fails to support that the United States Constitution should be supreme over Islamic Sharia law.”

Torgerson ran as an independent in 2010 and her statements about Muslims drew fire from watchdog groups.

She also called for implementation of laws barring Sharia law.

We have duly enacted state laws and statutes throughout our 50 states in this, our United States of America. We also have duly enacted, by our elected officials, federal laws and statutes. Everyone who is a citizen of, and who lives in or visits the United States of America, is subject to the laws of our states and federal government. No one gets to come to the United States and bring their own laws here and expect them to apply in our states or federal government, or our courts. Islamic Sharia has no place in America. We must enact legislation barring the implementation of this foreign, non-representative sect of law. Islamic Sharia law must be banned throughout the United States.

Torgerson lost the race in 2010, garnering 3 percent of the vote versus Ellison’s 69 percent. During that bid she secured the backing of the Tea Party Nation.

Conventional wisdom says the lame-duck session of Congress will not produce any legislation of consequence. Regardless, speakers and activists at an Americans For Prosperity-organized protest outside the U.S. Capitol railed Monday against the prospect of the outgoing Democratic Congress trying to pass anything.

Few political observers think that any significant legislation will pass — most of the session will be devoted to passing needed spending bills, an unemployment extension and, possibly, a compromise on the Bush tax cuts. “Lawmakers must slog through the postelection session that, as with past lame ducks, is expected to be unpopular and largely unproductive,” wrote the Washington Post Monday.

“Well, it’s about trust but verify,” Dallas Woodhouse, the North Carolina state director of AFP told The American Independent when asked whether or not Congress would achieve anything during the lame-duck session. He added that AFP wanted Congress to pass a “clean, continuing” resolution to fund the government until the new Congress could make decisions, and to extend the Bush tax cuts.

On whether to pass unemployment insurance that expires at the end of the month, he said if the measure passed with the tax cuts, it would not be a “major issue,” but had problems with its continual extension. “Is unemployment insurance, insurance? Or is it welfare?” he asked.

Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group founded in 2004 by billionaire David Koch but closely associated with the tea party, was convinced that Congress might pass bigger legislation. ”Now Congress must respect the will of the people and refrain from passing any new legislation that supports or funds the Left’s global warming agenda, the bailout for union pensions, or funding for the Obama/Pelosi health care takeover,” said AFP President Tim Phillips in a press release preceding Monday’s rally.

“How egregious it would be to increase taxes,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), chair of the Tea Party Caucus and the headline speaker for the protest. “In the 6th District of Minnesota, they could take out $1.2 billion out of my district to spend more … they spend more than that before their morning coffee!” Ostensibly commenting on the expiration of the Bush tax cuts slated for the end of the year, she professed, “The largest tax increase in history could cost 2,000 jobs in my district.” (Bachmann could hardly leave the rally as so many fans mobbed her. “Join my Facebook page!” she said, trying to leave.)

Several other members of Congress stepped out of their nearby offices to speak. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) and several newly-elected congressmen staying at the L’Enfant Plaza Hotel for new member orientation also spoke.

“The repeal of welfare reform was IN Obamacare,” claimed Rep. Gohmert.

The crowd was relatively small; AFP provided buses from North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia. “We needed to send a message to be a watchdog,” said Fay Kist, a retired teacher who traveled by bus from Virginia Beach. When asked about her specific concerns for the lame-duck session — over AFP-provided Domino’s Pizza — her response was immediate: “Earmarks, I never liked earmarks.”

After the rally, AFP steered many attendees to the office of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has opposed a moratorium on earmarks proposed by congressional conservatives. But just after 2 p.m., at the start of the lame-duck session, he changed his position, in his opening speech on the Senate floor.

“This is no small thing. Old habits are not easy to break, but sometimes they must be,” he said. “There is simply no doubt that the abuse of this practice has caused Americans to view it as a symbol of the waste and out of control spending that every Republican in Washington is determined to fight.”

Luke Johnson cover Minnesota for The American Independent.

Rep. Michele Bachmann confirmed on Wednesday that she’ll seek a leadership post in Congress following the GOP takeover of the U.S. House. On her Facebook page, she announced she’ll be going after the number four spot in the leadership, Chairman of the House Republican Conference.

Rumors had swirled for weeks that Bachmann would attempt a spot in Republican leadership. On Wednesday, she confirmed the rumors with MinnPost.

“Constitutional conservatives deserve a loud and clear voice within the GOP leadership, and Congresswoman Bachmann will be the perfect voice for that,” spokesman Sergio Gor said. “As we saw last night, Constitutional conservatives are what the American people want, not more of the same party establishment.”

Bachmann is the founder of the House Tea Party Caucus and has promised to hold Constitution classes for members of Congress.

Randy Demmer, Tim Walz

Rep. Tim Walz and his GOP-endorsed opponent, Randy Demmer, posted similar fundraising number for the second quarter, though Walz leads handily in terms of cash on hand. Demmer raised $303,641 and has $251,000 cash on hand. Walz raised $381,000 and the campaign says it has “$856,000 in reserves.”

Demmer has raised $375,433.01 to date, while Walz has raised $1.4 million. Demmer has an outstanding debt of $130,000 from a loan he made to his campaign.

“We still have a lot of work to do, but thanks to over 1,000 separate contributors, we are on track and well-positioned heading into the next phase of the campaign,” Demmer said in a statement.

“[Walz] continues to fight for fiscal responsibility in Washington with Pay-As-You-Go budgeting rules and Tim is running his campaign the same way – his campaign will report zero debt,” said Walz campaign manager Richard Carlbom. “Rep. Randy Demmer may talk a lot about fiscal responsibility, but he has run a debt of more than $130,000 going on two years. Saying one thing and doing another is the sign of a typical politician.”

Photo: WDCpix

An appropriations bill passed by Congress last weekend is being hailed by public health advocates for ending funding for abstinence-until-marriage sex education and eliminating the ban on federal funding for needle exchange programs. Minnesota is one of a three dozen states that allow drug users to have access to unused needles and is one of a few states which has rejected federal abstinence funds.

“This bill marks the first time since 1981 that abstinence-only-until-marriage programs will not receive dedicated federal funding in the coming fiscal year,” Jen Heitel Yakush, assistant director for public policy at SIECUS told RH Reality Check.

In 2007, Minnesota state officials declined to accept abstinence funding, which at one time was bringing in more than $2 million from the federal government to Minnesota.

The bill passed over the weekend also put an end to a ban on the use of federal funds for needle exchange programs. That ban was put into place in 1988.

“After 20 years of work, this historic vote finally signals that the United States now fully accepts the evidence of eight federal studies that syringe exchange reduces the incidence of HIV/AIDS and does not increase substance abuse,” Rebecca Haag, executive director of AIDS Action, a national advocacy group, said in a statement. “AIDS Action calls on the President to sign and implement this legislation in the U.S. and to ensure that the State Department allows funding from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to go to syringe exchange in countries that need it. Tens of thousands of infections worldwide could be prevented by ensuring that people who inject drugs use only clean syringes.”

Minnesota has had needle exchange programs for more than a decade, and advocates told the Minnesota Independent this summer that the restriction on funding is a detriment to their work.

President Obama is expected to sign the legislation.