As previous newsletters/articles have detailed, Representative Anna Eshoo receives a significant amount of money from the pharmaceutical and other health care industries. But do those donations influence her positions on health care issues?

Eshoo has long supported the ‘R&D tax credit,’ which her web site says is a tax credit that provides companies with incentives to invest in research and development activities. Rep. Eshoo supports making the R&D tax credit permanent to provide companies with an important incentive to invest in the future technologies of this country. This would be an important issue for companies developing new products/technologies, such as pharmaceutical or biotech companies

On other health care issues, Rep. Eshoo has voted for and/or supports these priorities. This information comes from Rep. Eshoo’s web site and Project Vote Smart (www.smartvote.com)

• Supports investments in scientific research and technology;
• Wants to make permanent the R&D tax credit;
• She supports covering the uninsured by opening the Federal Employees Health Benefits plan to small business and individual employees;
• She support expanding prescription drug coverage under Medicare;
• She supports offering tax credits to individuals and small businesses to offset the cost of insurance coverage;
• She supports automatic enrollment of children in federal health care programs such as CHIP and Medicaid; and
• She supports stem cell research on existing lines of stem cells and allowing laboratories to create new lines of stem cells for additional research.