Senate HELP Committee Holds Field Hearing on Private Equity. In the hearing, held at the Massachusetts State House, members discussed the impact of private equity ownership on patients, providers, quality of care and...more
4/8/2024
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Appropriations Update. On March 20, Congress released bill text for the second (and final) tranche of fiscal year (FY) 2024 appropriations bills, which include: Defense, Financial Services, Homeland Security, Labor-HHS,...more
At midnight on Friday, funding runs out for the remaining six FY 2024 annual spending bills: State – Foreign Operations, Defense, Homeland Security, Labor – Health and Human Services, Legislative Branch, and Financial...more
3/19/2024
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House Passes Legislation to Prohibit Use of QALYs in All Federal Health Programs. The House passed H.R. 485, the Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act of 2023, a bill designed to prohibit the use of QALYs and similar...more
2/9/2024
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APPROPRIATIONS PROCESS MOVES FORWARD -
Over the weekend, negotiators in Congress agreed to certain spending allocations in order to fund various government agencies through most of the year. With both bodies in session...more
CONGRESS BUYS MORE TIME -
Last Friday President Biden signed a short-term funding patch. This extends government funding through a continuing resolution (CR) into March. Specifically, this CR gives Congress until March 1...more
Congress Passes CR and Averts Government Shutdown. As appropriators continue to draft the 12 funding bills for FY 2024, a new stopgap CR was needed to avoid a partial government shutdown on January 19. The Senate passed the...more
PARTIAL SNOW DAY, PARTIAL SHUT DOWN?
Much of the federal government is closed today because of yesterday’s significant (for DC) and unexpected snowfall. However, part of the federal government is set to shut down this...more
The Senate is back in session today, and the House comes back tomorrow. The beginning of 2024 is looking a lot like the end of 2023, with the big factor being the need to address government funding for fiscal year (FY) 2024....more
1/9/2024
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Congress Returns Next Week to Face Imminent Funding Deadlines. The Senate will return to session on January 8, and the House will return on January 9. Lawmakers face an immediate time crunch on FY 2024 appropriations, as the...more
1/8/2024
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Senate Finance Committee Examines Drug Shortages. The hearing addressed concerns and explored potential solutions related to drug shortages in the United States, particularly focusing on essential medications. The hearing...more
12/11/2023
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Two-Week Stretch Before Holiday Recess - Congress only has two weeks left in session for the rest of year. There is a lot to accomplish in those two weeks. While government funding has been punted into early 2024, Congress is...more
Limited Time Before the End of the Year and January 19 First, welcome back from what was hopefully a wonderful and restful Thanksgiving break. Although this year will not entail a year-end government funding package, we are...more
11/28/2023
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Congress Passes Two-Tiered CR to Fund Government into Early 2024. In the absence of final passage of any of the 12 annual appropriations bills for FY 2024, Speaker Johnson (R-LA) unveiled a short-term CR, H.R. 6363, the...more
CONGRESS -
House Ways & Means Chair Smith, House Energy & Commerce Chair Rodgers and Senate Finance Ranking Member Crapo Call for Withdrawal of Nurse Staffing Mandate. Rep. Smith (R-MO), Rep. Rodgers (R-WA) and Sen. Crapo...more
11/6/2023
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The House of Representatives has now been without a speaker for 20 days. Last week, Rep. Jordan (R-OH) dropped out of the speaker race after an internal Republican Conference vote showed he had no path to victory. This week,...more
CONGRESS -
House Republicans Still Unable to Elect New Speaker. As of publication of this newsletter, the House has held three roll call votes this week to elect a new speaker, with Rep. Jordan (R-OH) failing all three...more
ALL EYES ON THE HOUSE -
The Senate is in its planned recess this week.
The House is in recess until notified.
With a successful motion to vacate the speaker on October 3, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) is currently...more
THIS WEEK’S DOSE -
Uncharted Territory in the House: The House voted to remove Rep. McCarthy (R-CA) as Speaker of the House, then recessed until at least October 11, when the House is slated to reconvene to elect a new...more
10/9/2023
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CONGRESS -
House Republicans Release Healthcare Package. On September 6, House Republicans unveiled the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act, a draft package of healthcare transparency provisions, pharmacy benefit manager...more
9/11/2023
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Today the Senate returns from August recess, while the House remains on recess until next week. We are prepared for a very busy final quarter of 2023.
The first order of business for Congress is to fund the federal...more
Heading into the August Recess -
This is the last week in session before Congress goes out for a six-week August recess. Before that, Congress is typically in a mad dash to advance bills. However, this year we are in a...more
The House and Senate returned from recess, beginning a three-week sprint toward the August break. The House Education and the Workforce Committee held a markup of a bipartisan healthcare package of four bills. The House...more
7/14/2023
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Congress was in session for a final week of legislative business before the two-week Independence Day recess. The House brought a small-business-focused healthcare bill to the floor, approving it along party lines....more
6/23/2023
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Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization (MACRA) ,
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Work Before July 4 Recess -
This is the last week before Congress heads out for a two-week July 4 recess, and appropriations work in Congress is ramping up.
The Senate Appropriations Committee will hold its first full...more