[3] From 1985 to 1993 she worked at the U.S. Congress in a House subcommittee where she was responsible for a dozen Congressional oversight investigations on health and social policy — including political manipulation of government grants to prevent child abuse, lack of safeguards for infertility treatments, financial conflicts of interest among National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant recipients, and the lack of safety studies on breast implants.

Information from the hearings received widespread public health, government, and media attention, resulting in several policy and regulatory changes, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requiring implant manufacturers to submit safety studies for the first time.

[citation needed][3] In 1993, Zuckerman joined the staff of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and began an investigation that resulted in the first Congressional hearings focused on the possible causes of Gulf War syndrome.

She has said: In February 2011, Zuckerman and colleagues Paul Brown and Dr. Steven Nissen published a study in the peer-reviewed journal Archives of Internal Medicine, which evaluated the FDA's recalls of devices that the agency considered potentially deadly or otherwise very high risk.

Her policy work has resulted in news coverage on all the major TV networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News, public television, 60 Minutes, 20/20, National Public Radio, and in major U.S. print media such as The New York Times,[11][12][13][14] The Washington Post,[15] The Washington Times, Los Angeles Times,[16] The Boston Globe,[17][18] USA Today, Detroit Free Press, New York Daily News, Newsweek, Time, U.S. News & World Report, Family Circle, The New Yorker, Glamour, Self,[19] as well as many other newspapers, magazines, and radio programs.