Health Policy Report (2/13)

The Week in Review House and Senate lawmakers returned from a two-week district work period to begin four weeks of legislative business. During their first week back, House lawmakers cleared a pair of resolutions out of the Financial Services Committee aimed at promoting financial literacy. The resolutions seek to support the protection of elders through financial literacy (H.Res 328) and would encourage greater public-private […]

The Week in Review Both chambers of Congress were out of town for a district work period. The Week Ahead House and Senate lawmakers will return from their two-week district work period this afternoon to begin four weeks of legislative business. In the House, Democratic leadership plans to queue up votes on key policy priorities pertaining to drug pricing, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), climate […]

CMS Finalizes 2020 Exchange Rule Thursday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized its 2020 Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters, the annual rule that establishes standards for health plan issuers and the exchanges. Although CMS had proposed three prescription drug-related provisions, it finalized just one of them to allow plans to exclude […]

The Week in Review Prior to leaving Washington for a two-week recess, House Democrats pulled their proposal to raise discretionary spending caps from the floor amid disagreements over non-defense spending levels. The legislation would provide for a $17 billion increase above FY 2019 budget caps for defense spending and a $34 billion bump above that […]

The Week in Review Last week, House Democrats failed in their attempt to override President Donald Trump's veto of a measure that would prevent him from circumventing Congressional appropriation authority to allocate funding for border security. Despite the Democratic resolution of disapproval’s passage in both chambers last month, the effort to overturn the President's veto did not earn the required two-thirds majority […]

The Week in Review Both chambers of Congress were out of Washington last week for a district work period.

The Week in Review The Trump administration officially kicked off the fiscal year (FY) 2020 appropriations process last week, unveiling a budget (text; fact sheet; summary tables; press release) that calls for five percent cuts to non-defense spending. The budget’s proposed cuts and reforms to entitlement and health care programs, coupled with increased spending on […]

The Week in Review House lawmakers passed a sweeping ethics, campaign finance, and voting rights reform bill (H.R. 1) to finish out their legislative work week. The bill includes provisions that aim to expand voting rights by creating an automatic voter registration system and making Election Day a national holiday for federal workers. It would also reform the nation’s campaign finance system by increasing […]

The Week in Review Last week, Congressional Democrats made their first move in a series of legislative and legal maneuvers to prevent President Trump from circumventing Congress to fund a border wall. House lawmakers passed (245-182) a resolution of disapproval (H.J.Res 46) that would reject the President’s national emergency declaration on the southern border. While reports […]

The Week in Review Last week, in response to President Trump’s southern border national emergency declaration, House Democrats introduced a resolution of disapproval (H.J.Res 46) that would reject the President’s declaration. It’s the first move in a series of potential legislative and legal maneuvers by Congressional Democrats to block President Trump from circumventing Congress to fund a wall on the U.S.-Mexico […]

The Week in Review Members of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Conference Committee resumed talks last week in hopes reaching a deal to avoid a second partial government shutdown. Despite optimism heading into the weekend about reaching a border security deal and funding the government past the Feb. 15 deadline, negotiators of the bipartisan […]

The Week in Review House and Senate lawmakers began border security negotiations last week in hopes of striking a border security compromise, yet a bipartisan agreement remains elusive. In addition to the debate over President Trump’s $5.7 billion border wall priority, lawmakers have been hamstrung over the possibility of adding deals on immigration policy and the debt limit to the underlying negotiations. If the negotiators fail to […]