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A bill designed to help counter depression, burnout and suicide among healthcare providers cleared a key hurdle Wednesday, passing unanimously out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Reauthorization Act of 2024 updates and extends for five years an earlier version of the law. It funds grants for healthcare organizations and associations to run programs aimed at improving workers' mental health amid staff shortages and ongoing fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. (McAuliff, 3/20)

Preventive care or healthcare innovation legislation promising decadeslong savings benefits may soon get fairer appraisals from Congress’ nonpartisan scorekeeper. Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow lawmakers to request the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to generate budgetary savings estimates of prospective preventive healthcare legislation over a 30-year window as opposed to the current 10-year scoring window. (Muoio, 3/20)

House Republicans asked a government watchdog to investigate federal officials’ oversight of mental health funding, citing documents showing that more than $3.8 billion intended for emergency coronavirus response and for a 988 suicide and crisis hotline remained unspent as of late last year. (Diamond, 3/20)

Senators are launching an investigation of national security threats posed by high-risk biological research amid intensifying concern over U.S.-China biotech competition and lingering questions about COVID's origins. The probe by the top lawmakers on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee could help fuel a push for new restrictions on Chinese contract research firms like WuXi AppTec that critics say are tied to Beijing and pose a security risk. (Bettelheim, 3/21)

Congressional leaders are one step closer to closing out a particularly chaotic government funding season, releasing a massive, $1.2 trillion spending package early Thursday morning that they aim to pass through both chambers by week’s end. Lawmakers are again racing against a partial government shutdown that would hit just after midnight Saturday morning, after a fight over border-related funding delayed legislative text. The new package leaders unveiled overnight would boost budgets for the military through the end of September, while keeping funding for most non-defense agencies about even with current spending levels. (Emma and Scholtes, 3/21)

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says he will hold up a $1 trillion “minibus” spending package that needs to pass by the end of the day Friday to avoid triggering a partial government shutdown. “I will hold it up primarily because we’re bankrupt, and it’s a terrible idea to keep spending money at this rate,” Paul told The Hill on Wednesday. (Bolton, 3/20)

Two influential House panels questioned the administration’s top health official Wednesday during hearings on the White House’s fiscal 2025 budget proposal for the Health and Human Services Department, even as Congress races to avoid a partial government shutdown involving this year’s HHS funding. (Raman and Clason, 3/20)