118th Congress Continues to Grapple with Contentious CR. Addressing their final agenda item, lawmakers need to at a minimum enact a short-term CR that extends government funding beyond the current CR’s December 20 expiration date. Earlier this week, House Republican leaders brought forth a bipartisan agreement negotiated on both sides of the Capitol to extend government funding through March 14, 2025, and include significant other policies, including disaster relief funding, a Farm Bill extension, and a sizeable package of bipartisan healthcare policies. That package included pharmacy benefit manager reforms, patent reforms, a limited Medicare site neutral policy, Medicaid home- and community-based services policies, a 2.5% offset to the scheduled Medicare physician fee schedule reduction, and a two-year extension of Medicare telehealth flexibilities. However, amid growing concern from House Republicans, President-elect Donald Trump voiced his opposition Wednesday night and pushed for the debt limit to be raised, putting the package in immediate jeopardy. House Republicans in response developed a slimmed down CR on Thursday to raise the debt limit and fund the government into March 2025, with the inclusion of three months of funding for expiring healthcare programs. A vote on that package failed on the House floor with 38 Republicans joining most Democrats in opposition. As of the time of this publication, on Friday at 3:00 PM EST, House Republicans are working to coalesce around next steps to avoid a government shutdown and appear poised to vote on a CR similar to the one that failed on Thursday, without the provision to raise the debt limit. While we think the CR will include short-term extensions of expiring health provisions, it is not yet clear at this time.
Beyond the CR, activity on the House floor this week included passage of numerous public health bills, such as legislation on home care for veterans and funding for autism research. Some of the bills previously passed the Senate and could be signed by President Biden, while others were not voted on in the Senate and will need to be reconsidered next Congress. The House also moved Senate bill S. 4610, which will now go to the president. This bill proposes to do something we all thought had been done centuries ago: naming the bald eagle the official national bird.
House Health Committees Select New Republican Members. The Republican Steering Committee added four new members to the Ways & Means Committee for the 119th Congress: Reps. Rudy Yakym (IN-2), Max Miller (OH-7), Aaron Bean (FL-4), and Nathaniel Moran (TX-1). Ten Republicans have been added to the Energy & Commerce Committee, including three freshmen: Craig Goldman (TX-12), Julie Fedorchak (ND-AL), and Gabe Evans (CO-8). The seven other Republicans joining the committee are Michael Rulli (OH-6), Erin Houchin (IN-9), Russell Fry (SC-7), Laurel Lee (FL-15), Tom Kean (NJ-7), Nick Langworthy (NY-23), and Cliff Bentz (OR-2).
Democrats still need to select their new members on the Energy & Commerce and Ways & Means Committees. Across the Capitol, both Republicans and Democrats need to select new members for Senate committees. With a switch in control in the Senate, Republicans will add new members to both the Finance Committee and the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Democrats also have Finance Committee seats to fill after previous members lost reelection or retired.
House Energy & Commerce Committee Announces New Health Subcommittee Chair. Incoming Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-KY) announced today that Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) will be the Health Subcommittee Chair. Carter has been a supporter of extending Medicare telehealth flexibilities and reforming pharmacy benefit managers.
CBO Details Options to Reduce the Federal Deficit. The report comes as Republicans, who will control both Congress and the White House next year, look for ways to reduce federal spending and seek policies that could offset their planned extension of Trump 1.0 tax cuts and other objectives. Healthcare options include reducing federal Medicaid matching rates, reducing Medicare Advantage benchmarks, creating federal spending caps for Medicaid, and implementing Medicare site neutral policies. CBO releases this report regularly; just because an option is included does not mean it is politically tenable or will be pursued, but scoring policies does provide a menu to Members of Congress if they are seeking to find savers. CBO also released a primer explaining how it incorporates administrative and judicial actions when publishing projections of the federal budget and preparing cost estimates.
House Bipartisan Task Force on AI Releases Report. The task force adopted several high-level principles to frame its policy analysis, and the report includes both overarching and industry-specific findings and recommendations. The task force found that the use of AI in healthcare can reduce administrative burdens and speed up drug development and clinical diagnosis. It also found that the lack of ubiquitous, uniform standards for medical data and algorithms impedes system interoperability and data sharing. Healthcare recommendations include maintaining robust support for healthcare research related to AI and supporting the development of standards for liability related to AI issues.
ASTP/ONC Releases HTI-3 Final Rule. In the Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability (HTI-3) rule, ASTP/ONC finalized:
ASTP/ONC has divided finalization of the policies that were included in the broad HTI-2 proposed rule, released in July 2024, into three installments:
CMS Actuary Office Data Shows Increased Healthcare, Hospital Spending. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) data show that healthcare spending reached $4.9 trillion in 2023, an increase of 7.5% from 2022. This represents the highest percentage change since 2020. The high spending can mostly be attributed to an increase in insurance coverage and high hospital and prescription drug usage in the private insurance market and in Medicare. Hospital spending alone reached $1.5 trillion in 2023, an increase of 10.4%, which is the largest spending increase since 1990. Despite this increased spending, healthcare expenditures remained 17% of the economy overall, the same percentage as in 2022. While the federal share of healthcare spending decreased, an overall increase in healthcare spending could raise alarm bells on Capitol Hill among conservatives who are concerned about high healthcare expenditures.
Once Congress resolves the CR situation, the 118th Congress will draw to a close. The 119th Congress will begin on January 3, 2025, when members will be sworn in. You can find the combined House/Senate 2025 congressional calendar here. We will next publish on January 10, 2025. We hope you have a happy holiday and a great start to the new year.
For more information, contact Debra Curtis, Kristen O’Brien, Erica Stocker, Julia Grabo, or Maddie News.
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