House Oversight and Accountability Committee Holds Hearing on PBMs. Republicans and Democrats shared concerns about the role and practices of PBMs. While generally supportive of free market principles, Republicans criticized...more
WILL WE EVER SEE “PRECEDENTED TIMES” AGAIN? If the last month, if not the last several years, has felt like emotional-political whiplash, it is for good reason. We’ve witnessed the US Supreme Court issue landmark rulings,...more
Senate HELP Committee Holds Hearing on Medical Debt. The hearing examined the negative impacts of medical debt and explored potential solutions to address the growing issue. Senators and witnesses highlighted the disparity...more
House Ways & Means Health Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Value-Based Care. The hearing examined the challenges and opportunities associated with delivering better health outcomes and Medicare savings through value-based care....more
Congress is back in session this week, with the House in today and the Senate returning tomorrow. They are back for a four-week stretch until the Memorial Day recess break. Congress has already moved many of the major bills...more
CONGRESS AWAY, ADMINISTRATION STILL IN PLAY - Congress is mostly in recess this week, with the exception of the Senate returning on Tuesday, April 23, to consider the House-passed foreign aid package. Thus there are no...more
Neil deGrasse Tyson routinely reminds us that January 1 is “a cosmically arbitrary event, carrying no Astronomical significance,” and that bodes well for Congress, whose new year is just getting started. Sure, it’s...more
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
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
A few weeks ago, Regs & Eggs discussed the constant give and take between federal agencies and Congress as they both work on overlapping policies and objectives. The major regs released last week provide an excellent example...more
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
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
Below is this week’s congressional update by BakerHostetler’s Federal Policy team. We’ll continue to post in weeks when both chambers of Congress are in session....more
Last week, the North American Securities Administrators Association sent a letter to U.S. Senate and House committee leaders expressing concern that the appropriations process will "may be used to advance provisions in the...more
September 13th, the Senate returns to D.C., while the House returns September 20th. With just a four-vote margin in the House, an even split in the Senate, and 10 days before the end of the fiscal year, Speaker Pelosi,...more
As the new 117th Congress assumes office in January 2021, key leaders within each party and committees in both chambers are poised to shift. Several members have already announced their intentions to seek higher positions...more
The House of Representatives has adopted a series of rules changes for the 116th Congress to implement a reform package that House Democrats developed after recapturing the House majority in the November 2018 midterm...more
As many predicted, Democrats recaptured the House for the first time in eight years in yesterday’s midterm elections, while Republicans retained and strengthened their grip on the Senate. That will lead to a dynamic in...more
In this episode, Akin Gump congressional investigations practice co-heads Rafi Prober and Steve Ross look at the history of Hill investigations and how the midterm elections may change their emphasis and targets. Among the...more