Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Senate Passes Bill That Puts A Few More Months On The Shutdown Clock
The Senate on Wednesday passed legislation to extend funding for federal agencies, sending the bill to avert a government shutdown to President Biden’s desk just days before the weekend deadline. The bill, which passed by an 87-11 vote, represents a marked de-escalation between congressional Democrats and new House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). Without the new spending measure, called a continuing resolution or CR, the government would have shut down just after midnight Saturday, forcing federal workers — including military members and airport security agents — to work without pay or go on furlough on the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday. (Bogage, 11/15)
Program extensions relevant to the healthcare industry largely fall under the former cutoff date. These include scheduled $8 billion-per-year cuts to Medicaid disproportionate share hospital program payments as well as funding for community health centers, the National Health Service Corps and teaching health centers operating Graduate Medical Education programs. Additionally, scheduled multiyear pay cuts to the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule set to take effect Jan. 1, 2024, have been pushed back a full year. (Muoio, 11/15)
In other action from Capitol Hill —
Panels in both the House and Senate have now passed restrictions to drug middlemen business practices, increasing the chances of those measures being included in future government spending bills. (Wilkerson, 11/15)
House lawmakers late Tuesday voted to attach a U.S. ban on controversial infectious disease research to legislation that could ultimately fund federal health agencies like the National Institutes of Health. The bill would bar any federal agencies from funding so-called gain-of-function research, which involves altering a pathogen to study its spread, potentially making it more transmissible or severe in the process. (Owermohle, 11/15)
Lawmakers and Veterans Affairs officials on Tuesday touted the potential for psychedelic drugs to treat mental health conditions and prevent veteran suicide, but they said additional research and FDA-approval is needed before the therapies could be available. In one of the first hearings in Congress on psychedelics since 1966, when Dr. Timothy Leary testified on the therapeutic potential for LSD, a House Veterans Affairs panel drilled VA physicians and advocates on psychiatric treatments that use MDMA, known recreationally as molly or ecstasy, and psilocybin, or magic mushrooms. (Kime, 11/15)
On social media's effect on children —
A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators has written to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg demanding documents about its research into the harm to children from its social media platforms. A whistleblower's release of documents in 2021 showed Meta knew Instagram, which began as a photo-sharing app, was addictive and worsened body image issues for some teen girls. (11/15)
Meta is pushing for rival tech giants such as Google and Apple to play a bigger role in keeping teens off potentially harmful sites, calling for the first time for legislation to require app stores to get parental approval when users age 13 to 15 download apps. The proposal, which the Facebook and Instagram parent company is set to announce Wednesday, counters mounting calls by state and federal policymakers for individual sites to proactively screen kids to limit their use of social media platforms over safety concerns. (Lima and Nix, 11/15)
