�鶹Ů��

The program that allows veterans to see private doctors using Department of Veterans Affairs funding would get a 50% boost under a spending plan released by House Republicans on Wednesday. Overall, the House Appropriations Committee's fiscal 2026 VA spending bill would give the department about $453 billion -- a whopping $83 billion more than Congress approved for the department for this year. (Kheel, 6/4)

Lawmakers expressed bipartisan support for reauthorizing an FDA program that helps streamline the process for bringing nonprescription drugs to market during a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee on Wednesday. Democrats, however, questioned whether the recent workforce reduction at the agency could hamper the program's implementation, while HELP Committee Chair Sen. Bill Cassidy, MD (R-La.), criticized the agency for failing to move more drugs from prescription to over-the-counter (OTC) status. (Firth, 6/4)

Office and Management Budget Director Russell Vought on Wednesday was pressed on proposed cuts to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) pursued as part of a new rescissions request from the Trump administration. During a budget hearing Wednesday, Vought defended proposed reductions as targeting items like “teaching young children how to make environmentally friendly reproductive health decisions” and efforts he claimed were aimed at strengthening “the resilience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer global movements.” (Folley and Weixel, 6/4)

The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee is demanding answers from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick about why employees fired from his department were denied health care coverage they had already paid for. "I urge you to take immediate action to remedy the financial and physical injury done to employees who had their health coverage illegally cancelled," wrote Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, acting ranking member of the committee, in a letter to Lutnick. "I also request information about how you are ensuring that such abuse of employees never occurs again." (Hsu, 6/4)

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) gave a new name to the “big, beautiful bill” on Wednesday, calling it the “Well, We’re All Going to Die Act.” Schumer appeared at a press conference alongside Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and stood next to a sign that read “Well, We’re All Going to Die Act,” a reference to previous comments from Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa.) (Suter, 6/4)