New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone was named to chair the Congressional Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health. The subcommittee deals with all aspects of healthcare including pharmaceutical issues and has sole jurisdiction over the FDA, the National Institutes of Health, Medicaid, and the Centers for Disease Control. It also shares jurisdiction of Medicare with the Congressional Ways and Means Committee. Pallone said he wants the subcommittee to focus on reforming food and drug safety laws, focus on health issues concerning senior citizens and safeguard against public health emergencies such as bioterrorism and bird flu. “This new Congress must address the inadequacies that currently exist in our broken health care system,” Pallone, D-Long Branch, told the Associated Press.