End-of-2026 Health Policy Landscape: What Congress Could Address Before Year-End

Today, the House Energy and Commerce Committee hosted its second 21st Century Cures roundtable to discuss “bridging the gap” between digital medicine’s advances and regulatory policies. This roundtable follows the Committee’s recently released white paper entitled Leveraging Technology to Advance the Discovery, Development, and Delivery of Better Treatments and Cures. The stated goal of the 21st Century Cures Initiative is to “to […]

 Last week, House leadership elections and appropriations bills dominated the agenda on Capitol Hill. In the House, GOP members elected Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as Majority Leader, following Rep. Eric Cantor's (R-VA) recent loss in a Virginia GOP primary. In floor activity, the Senate deadlocked Thursday on moving ahead with a three-bill appropriations package after […]

On Tuesday the voters in Mississippi will have the privilege of helping to determine whether the ascending trajectory the pundits placed back on the Tea Party following Majority Leader Cantor’s primary defeat maintains momentum or loses steam. While the media often focuses on the extremes of both parties, it is important to remember that the […]

Shortly ago, House Republicans voted for Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as the new House majority leader. The four-term Republican lawmaker, who previously served as the majority whip, will take over for Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) when he leaves his post on July 31. McCarthy defeated Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) in a vote held by private […]

The House will spend the day on the critical duty of naming post offices, while the Senate plans to finish work on some of President Obama’s judicial nominations. On the Senate floor today are confirmation votes for three judicial nominees and a cloture vote on an assistant attorney general nominee. The upper chamber will convene […]

Eric Cantor’s loss last week was described by some as yet another example of Republican’s “eating their own.” Unfortunately, liberals are also agitating in this way as well, and appear to be weaving the same narrative of creating “purity tests”, ironically with both sides taking aim at Wall Street.

Last week, a key Republican on the House Appropriations Committee said GOP lawmakers will seek to block the EPA’s proposed greenhouse-gas rule by denying the funding to implement it. According to Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID), chairman of the House’s Energy-Water Appropriations subcommittee, said the funding ban will be included in the fiscal 2015 spending bill […]

Both chambers of Congress were in session last week, with the House debating two fiscal 2015 appropriations bills and expired tax breaks, while the Senate focused on veterans’ care and student loan costs. Last Tuesday, the House approved the fiscal 2015 Transportation-HUD spending bill (H.R. 4745) in a 229-192 vote. Earlier that day, House members […]

Today, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) published anew report (highlights) finding that Medicare Advantage and Standalone Part D plan formularies generally cover prescription drugs commonly used by full-benefit dual eligibles, despite some variation across plans. The Affordable Care Act-required annual report, which does not contain any recommendations, has similar […]

Today, the House Energy and Commerce’s subcommittee on Health held a hearing on the 21st Century Cures Initiative entitled, Examining the Role of Incentives in Advancing Treatments and Cures for Patients. With Republicans focused on the theme of extending patents for drug and device manufactures and Democrats primarily concerned with spending for “basic science” at […]

Tuesday, June 10, 2014 – Today, Director Richard Cordray of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) appeared before the Senate Banking Committee, presenting the semi-annual report for the nation’s consumer financial watchdog. Director Cordray was asked by committee members about student debt refinancing, the collection of identifying data by the Bureau, and building renovation costs for the Bureau’s […]

Today, the Ways and Means Subcommittees on Oversight and Health held a joint hearing to examine the implementation of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) income and insurance verification systems. Buoyed by recent reports that roughly 1.2 million Exchange enrollees filed applications with questionable income data, Republicans on the Committee chastised the administration for failing to […]