This Week in Congress

House and Senate

The House and Senate were in session this week and continued to markup appropriations bills, the National Defense Authorization Act, and approve nominations for Federal agency positions and district judges.

Appropriations

This week the House Appropriations Subcommittees completed action on all 12 appropriations bills and plan full committee markups prior to the August recess which begins on July 31, 2023.

LHHS

The House Subcommittee on LHHS marked up the FY’24 bill and recommended total funding for the  bill of $163.0 billion, a cut of $63.8 billion or 28 percent below last year’s funding. The detailed numbers and explanation of the language provisions will not be released until the Full Appropriations Committee markup expected next week. The Senate will markup its LHHS bill on July 27.

The House Republican press release, summary and bill text can be found here

The House Democratic summary can be found here

House Freedom Caucus Letter

In a letter to Speaker McCarthy, 21 House Freedom Caucus Members stated that they cannot support appropriations bills that will produce a top-line discretionary spending level barely below the “bloated” FY’23 level and effectively in line with the cap set by the debt ceiling deal that they opposed and was supported by more Democrats than Republicans.

The letter can be found here

Letter to the CDC Director on DIS

A letter signed by 48 organizations was sent to the new CDC Director requesting funding to support the DIS workforce.

The letter can be found here

New CDC Director

This week Dr. Mandy Cohen was sworn in as the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The former North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Secretary succeeds CDC director Rochelle Walensky, who departed the agency at the end of June. Dr. Cohen led North Carolina’s Health and Human Services Department during the pandemic and was most recently executive vice president at the health care company Aledade and CEO of Aledade Care Solutions.

NDAA

Passage of the House FY’24 defense authorization bill is uncertain after Republicans added a number of provisions that Democrats won’t support. Last evening the House adopted an amendment by Rep. Jackson that would reverse a Defense Department policy that reimburses service members who must travel to obtain reproductive health care. Democrats said that they would vote against the bill if that provision was included. The House also adopted two amendments that would limit access to health care for transgender troops and two amendments targeting diversity initiatives at the Pentagon. Top Democrats on the Armed Services Committee in a joint statement pledged to vote against the bill. House Minority Leader Jeffries, Minority Whip Clark and Democratic Caucus Chair Aguilar said in a joint statement that they would also vote against the bill, calling it “an extreme and reckless legislative joyride.” Senate floor action on the legislation is expected to begin next week with hundreds of amendments expected.

Other Legislative Happenings Around the Nation

FDA Approves Over-the-Counter Birth Control Pills

This week the FDA approved the country’s first-ever daily hormonal contraceptive pill for sale without a prescription. Perrigo, the pill’s manufacturer, has pledged to make the pill “accessible and affordable to women and people of all ages,” but did not give a timeline for its release. CVS, one of the nation’s largest pharmacy chains, has already pledged to carry it in its 10,000 locations. According to the CDC, the pill is about 93 percent effective at preventing pregnancy. Two independent FDA panels voted unanimously in May to recommend the agency approve Opill without a prescription.

Abortion

Seventy-three percent of Americans believe that abortion should be legal six weeks into pregnancy, including 88 percent of Democrats and 56 percent of Republicans, according to the poll conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs. Americans were more divided when asked about whether abortion should be legal at 15 weeks and 24 weeks into the pregnancy, with 51 percent and 21 percent in support of it, respectively.

Idaho

Advocates who counsel and aid Idaho teenagers seeking abortion care filed suit against Republican Attorney General Labrador in a bid to overturn the state’s abortion travel ban. The travel ban, which took effect May 5, created the crime of “abortion trafficking,” punishable by a minimum of two years in prison. It forbids helping a person under 18 years old to obtain abortion pills or leave the state for abortion care without parental permission.

Indiana

All Planned Parenthood clinics in Indiana are out of appointments for abortion services for the next three weeks, when the state’s near total abortion ban takes effect. This news comes just after the Indiana Supreme Court announced on June 30 that it would vacate an injunction on the state’s near total abortion ban, allowing it to take effect as soon the decision is certified, on or near Aug. 1.

Iowa

Abortion providers and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit challenging Iowa’s bill that would ban most abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, the Emma Goldman Clinic and the ACLU of Iowa filed the challenge in district court less than 12 hours after the bill passed.

Oregon

Abortion rates in Oregon have increased since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade’s federal abortion protections last year led patients in states where the procedure is restricted to seek care here. Oregon created a $15 million fund last year to expand abortion services across the state, while also funneling money into nonprofit abortion funds like the Northwest Abortion Access Fund, which helps people pay for the procedure and travel.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin’s 173-year-old abortion ban outlaws killing fetuses but doesn’t apply to consensual medical abortions, according to a judge’s ruling allowing a lawsuit challenging the ban to continue. Dane County Circuit Judge Schlipper said the legal language in the ban doesn’t use the term “abortion” so the law only prohibits attacking a woman in an attempt to kill her unborn child.

LBGTQ Issues

Kansas

Kansas must stop allowing transgender people to change the sex listed on their driver’s licenses, according to a state-court judge order issued this week as part of a lawsuit filed by the state’s Republican attorney general.

Tennessee

Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth can go into effect after a federal appeals court temporarily reversed a lower court ruling. Last month, a district court judge found that the state’s new law banning transgender therapies like hormone blockers and surgeries for transgender youth was unconstitutional because it discriminated on the basis of sex. The judge blocked large swaths of the law from taking effect.

340(b)

CMS plans to repay 1,600 340B hospitals $9 billion to make up for cuts to 340B drug reimbursements the Supreme Court deemed unlawful, according to a proposed rule released on July 7, 2023. The agency also proposed an estimated 16 years of 0.5% cuts to the non-drug aspects of the hospital outpatient pay system starting in 2025 to keep the system budget neutral. The Federation of American Hospitals says CMS’ move to claw back funds from hospitals “runs counter to the law.”

The article can be found here