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At Thursday’s news conference, U.S. Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler, both New York City Democrats, and Peter King, a Long Island Republican, called on their colleagues to make the Zadroga Act permanent. The legislation, signed into law in 2011 after extensive lobbying by survivors, provides for the monitoring and treatment of people suffering from illness and injuries caused by the terrorist attacks. Many 9/11 first responders developed ailments including asthma, lung disease and cancer. (MacMillan, 9/3)

With a shortage of other viable legislative vehicles, Senate Finance Chairman Orrin G. Hatch has his eye on using a potential reconciliation bill later this year or early in 2016 to repeal parts of the health care overhaul, including the 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices. The top tax writer has been hunting for a home for a device tax repeal (S 149) he authored that has 39 co-sponsors. The House passed a similar plan (HR 160), 280-140, in June. The Utah Republican also is weighing other health-related add-ons for reconciliation, including incentives for manufacturing so-called orphan drugs that combat rare diseases. (Ota, 9/3)

Two high-ranking House Democrats are calling on their Republican counterparts to end their congressional investigations of Planned Parenthood -- or at least expand them to encompass alleged misdeed by antiabortion activists who put the group's fetal tissue practices in the spotlight. Rep. John Conyers (Mich.), top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in a letter to the Republican chairmen of those committees that the undercover videos that sparked the investigations are unreliable and may have been obtained by illegal means, calling on them to "halt these one-sided investigations immediately." (DeBonis, 9/3)

Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Thursday she would introduce legislation to move veterans from the county’s alleyways and sidewalk shantytowns onto the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' long-contested West Los Angeles campus. (Holland, 9/3)

Congress’ 2007 decision to lift a ban on the District of Columbia’s ability to tap local funds for needle exchange programs averted an estimated 120 cases of HIV over two years and saved almost $45 million, according to a study released Thursday that could expand support for other policy changes. The findings by researchers at the George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health comes as Congress has shown more openness to providing states with leeway to use federal funds to support needle exchanges in some circumstances, by modifying the ban implemented annually through the appropriations process. (Attias, 9/3)