UPDATE: On June 4, 2025, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released updated cost estimates of H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. We have updated our summary of the bill’s health provisions to reflect these new CBO...more
THIS WEEK’S DOSE - - House Passes Reconciliation Package. The package now moves to the Senate, where substantive changes, including in healthcare, will likely be made. - HHS Secretary Kennedy, FDA Commissioner Makary...more
MAHA and More Medicaid - Late Sunday night, May 18, 2025, the House Budget Committee voted to advance the reconciliation package drafted by the Energy and Commerce Committee and Ways and Means Committee last week. The four...more
Can the House Pass a Budget Resolution This Week? The House is back from recess, so both chambers of Congress are in session this week (although the House is out again on Friday). With 18 days left to pass a budget before...more
Key Nominations Move Forward. The Senate Finance Committee advanced Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Jr.’s nomination to lead the US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) in a 14 – 13 vote along party lines. The nomination now...more
RFK Nomination Hearing Week - Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK), nominated for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), has a busy week with two Senate nomination hearings. He will testify in front of the Senate Finance...more
A lot has happened in the last three weeks, so here’s a high-level recap: Congress successfully, albeit rockily, passed a continuing resolution that will fund the government through March 14, 2025. That legislation...more
118th Congress Continues to Grapple with Contentious CR. With the collapse of Republican support for the negotiated continuing resolution (CR) package, as of the time of publication on Friday at 3:00 PM EST, Congress is still...more
Congress Negotiates Healthcare Extenders, Continues to Plan for 2025. Lawmakers continue negotiations to wrap up the 118th Congress and pass remaining must-do policies, including government funding, likely through a...more
House Oversight Subcommittee Hearing with Fauci. The hearing aimed to gather more information on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic by Anthony Fauci, MD, former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases...more
House Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee Holds Legislative Hearing on Improving Medicaid Access. Daniel Tsai, deputy administrator and director of the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS), testified. Members...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
A Quiet Healthcare Week on Capitol Hill. Congress was largely in recess this week, although the Senate returned briefly to complete consideration of a long-awaited foreign aid bill. Both chambers will return to session the...more
House Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Cybersecurity. During the hearing, there was bipartisan concern about UnitedHealth Group’s response to the Change Healthcare cyberattack and consensus around the...more
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
GOVERNMENT FUNDING EXPIRES SOON - The government will run out of funding in 11 days, on November 17. The House will continue to work to advance annual appropriations bills this week. However, a continuing resolution (CR)...more
NEXT UP: SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON - The House officially has a speaker: Mike Johnson (R-LA). On October 25, Rep. Johnson became Speaker Johnson with a final vote on the first ballot of 220–209. Speaker Johnson, a...more
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