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National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Monica Bertagnolli will resign on Jan. 17, she told staff this week, ending her tenure as the head of the $48 billion biomedical research agency after only a year. The NIH has typically been an agency with bipartisan support, and Bertagnolli’s predecessor, Francis Collins, served three administrations over more than 12 years. But lingering Republican anger over the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed NIH squarely into partisan crosshairs. (Weixel, 1/15)

National Institutes of Health Director Monica Bertagnolli wishes she’d had the opportunity to help shape GOP plans to overhaul her agency. ... Bertagnolli definitely isn’t endorsing some of congressional Republicans’ more far-reaching plans, like consolidating the agency’s divisions, and certainly not Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s threat to fire hundreds of NIH workers. But she does see reason for a serious-minded rethink of the way the $47 billion agency pursues health care breakthroughs. (Schumaker, Svirnovskiy and Payne, 1/15)

The conservative group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence is calling on senators to vote against confirming Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary because of his previous support for abortion. “Whatever the merits of RFK Jr’s Make America Healthy Again initiative—indeed, whatever other qualities a nominee might possess—an HHS Secretary must have a firm commitment to protect unborn children, or else bend under the pressure and pushback surrounding these daily, critical decisions,” Advancing American Freedom President Tim Chapman and Board Chairman Marc Short wrote in a letter to senators. (Weixel, 1/15)

President-elect Donald Trump's HHS appointees represent a broad spectrum of healthcare perspectives and are poised to significantly influence public health, pharmaceuticals and health systems. With a $1.8 trillion budget in 2024, the department's leadership will have the authority to direct policy, allocate resources, and oversee pivotal agencies — including the CDC, FDA, CMS and NIH — affecting the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans. (Emerson and Gamble, 1/15)

As artificial intelligence evolves and gains new capabilities in health care, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep tabs on how it’s being used to make decisions about patient care. Hospitals and insurers are adopting applications that may save them time and money, but there is no way to track its impact on patients’ costs and outcomes, or to determine which AI models are subject to government regulation. (Ross, 1/16)

With less than a week to go until President-elect Donald Trump takes office, Democrats are ramping up their resistance to the incoming administration by focusing on health care access for undocumented immigrants. Democratic New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin is leading an effort with other states to safeguard access to government health insurance for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program — immigrants who came to the country as children but do not qualify for such insurance because they lack legal status. (Fernandez and Kashinsky, 1/15)

Conservative state lawmakers are prepared to press for more abortion restrictions this year, regardless of any action President-elect Donald Trump pursues in office. Many of the bills filed in state legislatures across the country focus on abortion pills, abortion access for minors and, in at least one state, how to undo protections for the procedure. (Luthra, 1/15)