Mental Health Key Component of President Obama's Gun Control Executive Orders
Client Alert | 1 min read | 01.22.13
On January 16, 2013, President Barack Obama issued the Gun Violence Reduction Executive Actions. Of the 23 Executive Actions, 3 in particular are particularly notable to the healthcare industry:
- No. 20 is an order to "Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover."
- No. 21 is an order to "Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges."
- No. 22 is an order to "commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations."
The orders can be read via the Washington Post.
President Obama also released a memo to the HHS Secretary, instructing the HHS to conduct research on the cause and possible solutions to gun violence, with a focus on the research issues with an impact on public health. Specifically, the memorandum directs HHS to begin by "identifying the most pressing research questions with the greatest potential public health impact, and by assessing existing public health interventions being implemented across the Nation to prevent gun violence." Click to read the memorandum as published in the Federal Register.
Insights
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25
On November 7, 2025, in Thornton v. National Academy of Sciences, No. 25-cv-2155, 2025 WL 3123732 (D.D.C. Nov. 7, 2025), the District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation complaint on the basis that the plaintiff’s allegations that he was fired after blowing the whistle on purported illegally discriminatory use of federal funding was not sufficient to support his FCA claim. This case appears to be one of the first filed, and subsequently dismissed, following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s announcement of the creation of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative on May 19, 2025, which “strongly encourages” private individuals to file lawsuits under the FCA relating to purportedly discriminatory and illegal use of federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in violation of Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025). In this case, the court dismissed the FCA retaliation claim and rejected the argument that an organization could violate the FCA merely by “engaging in discriminatory conduct while conducting a federally funded study.” The analysis in Thornton could be a sign of how forthcoming arguments of retaliation based on reporting allegedly fraudulent DEI activity will be analyzed in the future.
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
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