IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CONGRESS (BUT JUST FOR A WEEK)
Welcome to what should be the final legislative week of the calendar year.
The work that Congress does this week may provide insight into what will get...more
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
CONGRESS -
House Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee Examines AI. The hearing explored the transformative potential of AI in healthcare, acknowledging its promise in enhancing efficiency, improving patient care and...more
12/4/2023
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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
Will the Government Shut Down at the End of This Week?
We have reached the final work week during which Congress will need to come to an agreement on funding the government or enter a shutdown...more
CONGRESS -
Senate Finance Committee Holds Markup on Better Mental Health Care, Lower-Cost Drugs, and Extenders Act. The bipartisan package includes Medicare and Medicaid extenders, provisions to expand the mental health...more
11/10/2023
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U.S. House
CONGRESS -
House Republicans Elect New Speaker. After weeks of turmoil, the House elected Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) as the new Speaker of the House on Wednesday with 220 votes secured on the floor. The House is now able to...more
10/30/2023
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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
Speaker Race Impacts Healthcare Priorities We start this week as we did the last, with no speaker of the House. The House is scheduled to vote on Tuesday for Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) to be the speaker of the House. However, it...more
CONGRESS -
House Republicans Working to Elect New Speaker. On October 11, House Majority Leader Scalise won the Republican Conference’s nomination to become Speaker of the House after last week’s motion to vacate Speaker...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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U.S. Treasury
Do We End the Week with a Shutdown?
That is the question of the week. We’ll know the answer in five days, but right now, “yes” is a far more plausible answer than “no.”
On the House side, Speaker McCarthy will first...more
9/26/2023
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CONGRESS -
Senators Sanders and Marshall Release Bipartisan Primary Care and Health Workforce Act. Released on September 14, the legislation would reauthorize funding for a number of healthcare workforce programs that are...more
9/20/2023
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This week the House returns from August recess, so both bodies of Congress will be here and working. There is a lot to accomplish prior to the September 30, 2023, deadline for Congress to act to fund the federal government....more
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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Transparency
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
The House and Senate were both in session this week, with healthcare activity at the committee level. The House Ways and Means Committee held a markup focused on healthcare transparency and consolidation legislation. The...more
7/28/2023
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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 were both in session this week, with healthcare activity at the committee level. The House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on innovation and a markup of 15 healthcare bills. The Senate...more
7/24/2023
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Vaccinations
The US House and Senate returned from recess, beginning a three-week sprint toward the August break. The bipartisan healthcare legislation on pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and healthcare transparency is moving through both...more
Two Weeks Before August Recess
We are rapidly approaching the August recess, when both the House and Senate will be back home for an entire month. As a result, there is a mad dash to move legislation through the...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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