Executive Orders and Legal Action

As of this moment, many of the executive orders that most directly impact STI programs and professionals have been blocked by judges’ temporary orders. Judges have temporarily blocked the federal funding freeze and the executive orders on DEI and gender. Earlier this week, a group representing medical professionals filed another suit to prevent the administration from removing information from HHS websites. This case tracker provides an easy way to track the different lawsuits.

The administration also released new executive orders this week targeting transgender athletes and funding for non-governmental organizations.

Nominations

The Senate Finance Committee advanced Robert F. Kennedy Jr to the full Senate as the nominee for HHS Secretary. A vote on his nomination by the full Senate has not been scheduled yet but is anticipated for next week. The full Senate voted this week to confirm Russell Vought, co-author of Project 2025, as the new head of the Office of Management and Budget.

Reconciliation

Late this afternoon, Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-SC) released a Senate budget resolution. This action is the first step in the reconciliation process, which is a bill that can get through the Senate with a simple 50 vote majority, which means in the current Senate a bill would not need any Democratic support and is how Congressional Republicans are hoping to move forward many pieces of the President’s agenda. The Senate Budget Committee is scheduled to mark up this budget resolution next week. The House is expected to release their budget resolution next week, though internal disagreements in that Chamber could push that release until the next week.

FY2025 Appropriations

House and Senate Republican appropriators are continuing to work to reach an agreement on the FY’25 topline number in hopes of resolving the $90 billion difference between the two chambers. But even if Republicans come to an agreement, they still must work out a deal with Democrats. Without more progress on top line negotiations, leadership could decide to move forward on a yearlong continuing resolution (CR) next week. As a reminder, a CR maintains programs at their current funding levels, and NCSD would expect CR for FY2025 to also include some amount of an across-the-board cut to programs, as has been done in the past, though we do not know how much—that would need to be negotiated. For most STI and HIV program funding, a year-long CR could be the current best-case scenario, given it would maintain funding at close to current levels.