This Week in Congress

House

The House will return for legislative business on September 12, 2023.

Senate

The Senate was in session this week.

Appropriations

Continuing Resolution

When the House and Senate are both back in session next week, lawmakers will only have 14 legislative days to pass a CR to avert a government shutdown when the current fiscal year ends on September 30, 2023. Senators from both parties would like to avoid a government shutdown and pass a CR to extend current year funding until November or December, and also include in the package the President’s $44 billion emergency supplemental spending for Ukraine, disaster relief, and border security. But some House Republicans are signaling they have other ideas. Speaker McCarthy, under pressure from conservatives, has been floating the possibility of carving out the $24 billion request for Ukraine and border security in a separate package. That scenario would set the stage for a clash between the House and Senate that could stall the funding for the emergency supplemental as well as the CR and could lead to a government shutdown, at least for a few days.

Senate

The Senate is expected to take up a three-bill minibus next week. The package will include the FY’24 Military Construction, Agriculture, and Transportation/HUD spending bills.

House

Speaker McCarthy and House GOP leaders are considering attaching the disaster relief supplemental to the CR, but excluding the aid to Ukraine in the package. Senate leaders in both parties want to pass President Biden’s full $44 billion supplemental spending request which includes disaster relief for hurricanes, floods, and wild fires, border security and aid to Ukraine. Majority Leader McConnell said maintaining U.S. support for Ukraine is a national security priority. He added that Ukraine isn’t just fighting for its own independence but also “degrading the military of one of our biggest rivals.” McConnell has been making this case against Russia since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022. McCarthy also wants changes to border policies as well as an increase in overall border security money in return for additional Ukraine aid. Senator Lindsey Graham stated that he has been trying to impress on House Republicans that pulling the plug on Ukraine would amount to “creating chaos in the world” and rewarding Vladimir Putin.

Defense Military Promotions

Senator Tuberville has been blocking over 300 senior military promotions for months because of his opposition to the Pentagon’s abortion policy, which reimburses servicemembers who must travel out of state to obtain reproductive health care. He has vowed to continue his holds until either the Defense Department rescinds the policy or Congress passes it into law. Three positions on the Joint Chiefs of Staff are currently open, with more vacancies on the way. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Milley is set to retire at the end of the month, and it’s far from clear whether his replacement, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. C.Q. Brown, will get a vote.  “I am concerned the senator does not appreciate the gravity of the situation,” said Senator Jack Reed, Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee.  Reed further stated, “These positions cannot simply be filled by other officers — they can only be temporarily covered by their vice chiefs, who must also continue to cover their own jobs.” Democratic leaders remain firmly against holding individual votes on any of the nominees, arguing that doing so would set a dangerous precedent.

Other Happenings from Around the Nation

Gonorrhea

A study conducted at two universities in Oregon suggests meningococcal group B vaccine (MBV) may offer protection against gonorrhea infection, researchers reported in JAMA Network Open. In the study, researchers with the Oregon Public Health Division analyzed gonorrhea incidence among more than 30,000 students ages 18 to 29 at the University of Oregon and Oregon State University who received one or more doses of MBV following group B meningococcal outbreaks on the two campuses in 2015 and 2016.

HIV

More than four years ago, President Trump declared an ambitious goal that had bipartisan support: ending the HIV epidemic in the US. Now, that Trump program is one of several health initiatives targeted for substantial cuts by members of his own party as they eye next year’s elections. House Republicans have proposed to cut $1.6 billion from the CDC budget and also eliminate funding in the HRSA Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program. The cuts come on the heels of the rescission of CDC funding for disease intervention specialists and other cuts triggered by the debt-ceiling deal. The HIV cuts are not final and will be subject to House and Senate negotiations.  This will be an opportunity for CDC’s new director, Mandy Cohen, to show how well she can convince members of Congress to protect the agency’s interests in a polarized political landscape.

HPV

A new study found that the nation’s most common sexually transmitted infection appears to have an effective, long-term vaccine that continues to reduce cancer risk. An article published this week in the journal Pediatrics builds on growing evidence about the efficacy of vaccination against HPV, which is most often spread through vaginal, anal, or oral sex and can result in genital warts. For most people who get HPV, the virus goes away on its own without any effect, but for others it can lead to certain cancers.

Mpox

A new international study has shown mpox infections to be less severe among those who are vaccinated or had a previous infection in 2022, underlining the importance and effectiveness of vaccination.

Abortion

A new study found that there was about a 10% increase in abortions in the first six months of 2023 compared to the first half of 2020. The report by a pro-abortion rights group also found that there were about 511,000 abortions across 36 states this year — up 46,000 in three years. The sharpest increase was in states that bordered those with abortion bans — Colorado, Illinois, and South Carolina. Abortion had already been on the rise for years. For the states that saw a larger increase, it could be because of travel from states where abortion was banned. It could also be because of great economic growth and telehealth access.

Telehealth

A research letter in JAMA Network Open asks how telehealth affected choices of medication abortion services from April 2020 through January 2021. Looking at more than 1,200 patients’ records from a clinic in Washington state, the researchers found that just over two-thirds of patients received in-clinic appointments for medication abortion services, which the remaining patients got via telehealth. Those who lived farther away and who’d had abortions before were more likely to choose telehealth. Other differences: Patients who were multiracial or of other race were more likely than white patients to choose telehealth. Black patients, younger people, and non-English speakers were more likely to be seen in the clinic. “As access to abortion care continues to be restricted in the U.S., innovative models of care delivery are needed,” the authors write. The article can be found here

Florida

The fate of abortion rights in Florida will be at stake this week when the state Supreme Court is expected to take up a challenge to a law banning the procedure in most cases after 15 weeks of pregnancy, which will determine whether an even stricter six-week ban signed by Governor DeSantis can take effect. The seven justices — including five conservatives appointed by DeSantis — are set to hear oral arguments in Tallahassee in the lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, and others.

Mexico

This week the Mexican Supreme Court widened access to abortion, decriminalizing the procedure in federal health facilities. The ruling means that more than 70 percent of women in Mexico — including everyone who uses the federal health system — will have access to legal abortion, said the Information Group on Reproductive Choice, the nonprofit organization, which took the case to the Supreme Court, called the decision a “historic milestone.”

Ohio

An effort to guarantee access to abortion rights in Ohio, a November ballot measure, is already fueling misleading claims about how it could influence abortion care, gender-related health care and parental consent in the state. The proposed constitutional amendment would give Ohioans the right to make their own reproductive decisions. Backers say that since Roe v. Wade was overturned last year by the U.S. Supreme Court, the proposal would restore a commonsense abortion protection that most Ohio voters can support.

Pennsylvania

For nearly 30 years, Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania have approved millions of taxpayer dollars for an anti-abortion program. Now the state’s new governor plans to end the contract as the organization that distributes those funds and other groups like it gain attention since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Pennsylvania plans to end on Dec. 31 its longstanding contract with the nonprofit Real Alternatives, the first organization in the nation to secure significant state and federal subsidies to support anti-abortion counseling centers. Under the program, Real Alternatives distributed the state and federal funds to dozens of Pennsylvania centers, including Catholic Charities, anti-abortion counseling centers and maternity homes, which provide support and housing for pregnant women.

LBGTQ

California

A San Bernardino County Superior Court judge has put a pause on Chino Valley Unified School District’s new policy requiring school employees to out transgender students to their parents. The temporary restraining order marks the first legal setback for an effort to implement forced outing policies in school districts across the state. The latest to consider such a policy is Rocklin Unified. Other school systems that have passed or considered such a policy include districts in Murrieta and Temecula.

Florida

A federal judge refused to block a new Florida law making it more difficult for transgender adults to access hormone therapy and surgeries. But U.S. District Judge Hinkle said he could issue a narrowly tailored injunction to ensure care for individual plaintiffs if they provide detailed medical records.

Georgia

Georgia can resume enforcing a ban on hormone replacement therapy for transgender people under 18, a judge ruled this week, putting her previous order blocking the ban on hold after a federal appeals court allowed Alabama to enforce a similar restriction. Attorneys for the state had asked Judge Sarah Geraghty to vacate the preliminary injunction in light of the Alabama decision.

COVID-19

New Strain

The CDC said in an updated risk assessment that the highly mutated SARS-CoV-2 variant BA.2.86 has been identified in New York, Ohio, Michigan, and Virginia, either through human or wastewater samples, while the first case in Texas was reportedly identified by Houston Methodist through genomic sequencing last week. The new strain accounted for fewer than 1% of COVID-19 cases in the US over the last two weeks, while Omicron remains the dominant strain after being linked to almost 22% of cases, according to the CDC.

Vaccine Effectiveness

Moderna and Pfizer’s new Covid vaccine produced a strong immune response against BA.2.86, a highly mutated omicron variant that health officials are watching closely. The updated shot produced an 8.7-fold increase in protective antibodies against the new strain, which has been detected in small numbers nationwide. The CDC previously said the strain, also known as “Pirola,” may be more capable of escaping antibodies from earlier infections and vaccinations, but new research also suggests that the variant may be less immune-evasive than feared.