Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
GOP Senators Block Push To Add $600M In Emergency Funding To Bipartisan Opioid Bill
The Senate Wednesday rejected a Democratic effort to add $600 million to a bipartisan bill targeting heroin and opioid abuse. Supporters of the immediate funding won a majority of the Senate votes. But the 48-47 tally fell short of the 60 votes required for an attempt by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., to add the money. Republicans opposed to the proposal said there’s plenty of previously approved money in the pipeline and that additional funding can wait until this year’s round of regular spending bills. (Taylor, 3/2)
Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic push to add $600 million in emergency funding to an otherwise bipartisan opioid abuse bill Wednesday. Senators voted 48-47 on a procedural hurdle to an amendment from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), with 60 votes needed to move forward. (Carney, 3/2)
Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked $600 million in emergency funding intended to improve the monitoring of prescription drugs and help law enforcement combat heroin abuse. (Barron-Lopez, 3/2)
In other news from Capitol Hill, researchers offer testimony at the House special investigation committee's inaugural hearing on fetal tissue —
Republican lawmakers leading a special House panel probing the use of aborted fetal tissue in medical research used an inaugural hearing Wednesday to raise questions about the morality and necessity of the practice and renew a debate about placing restrictions on it. Some medical and research scholars who testified at the hearing urged new curbs, saying aborted fetal tissue isn’t necessary now that other types of cells are available. Others told lawmakers fetal tissue may hold vital clues to aid spinal injuries, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer’s disease, and possibly the Zika virus, which has been linked to the birth defect of babies born with abnormally small heads. (Armour, 3/2)
House Democrats suggested on Wednesday that a special House panel investigating Planned Parenthood could be complicit in future assaults or even murders of abortion providers at the Republican-led committee's first hearing on the ethics of fetal tissue research. The investigative panel was created last year following conservative furor over secretly recorded videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing how they sometimes supply fetal tissue for medical research. In February, the panel subpoenaed documents from groups that GOP lawmakers said were withholding information. Those include abortion providers and a company that supplies fetal tissue from abortion clinics to researchers. (3/2)
