This Week in Congress

House and Senate

Lawmakers will return to Washington for legislative business in September. The Senate returns on the 5^th and the House will be back in session on the 12^th.

Appropriations

Continuing Resolution (CR)

This week Speaker McCarthy convened a conference call with the Republican caucus to discuss plans for a CR to keep the government funded when the current fiscal year ends on September 30. The Speaker stated that the length of the CR would be no later than early December to avoid a Christmas funding cliff. The funding levels and policies that will be contained in the CR are still being worked out.

Supplemental

Another issue that could hang up the CR is the President’s $40 billion supplemental request. Funding includes $24 billion for humanitarian relief and DOD funding for Ukraine, which many Republicans oppose. The request also includes $4 billion for refugee housing and aid at the border. The requested $12 billion supplemental for Federal Emergency Management disaster assistance was requested prior to the Maui wildfires; additional funding is expected to be added to the package to address the Maui disaster.

Federal News

Dr. Leandro Mena to step down as DSTDP Director

This week, Rear Admiral Jonathan Mermin, Director, National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, announced that Dr. Leandro Mena, Director of CDC’s Division of STD Prevention, will step down on November 30. Dr. Mena came to CDC in 2021 after serving as the STD medical director for the state of Mississippi from 2005 to 2021, and directed the Center for HIV/AIDS Research, Education, and Policy at the Myrlie Evers-Williams Institute for Elimination of Health Disparities from 2016 to 2021. Dr. Mena also served as the medical director of Jackson, Mississippi’s public STD clinic between 2003 to 2021 and co-founded Open Arms Healthcare Center – Mississippi’s first LGBTQ clinic – in 2013. Dr. Merman stated that he “greatly appreciates Dr. Mena’s ongoing contributions and commitment to our work during his leadership of the Division and the many contributions he has made to CDC and the people we serve. “He has been an energetic, committed, and talented Division Director and colleague. We will begin a search for a new Division Director shortly.

Other Legislation and Happenings Around the Nation

Genital HPV Infections

A new meta-analysis published in The Lancet Global Health finds that nearly one in three men around the world have one or more types of genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, and about one in five have at least one kind of high-risk HPV (HR-HPV).

Aging HIV Survivors

The fight against the HIV epidemic has seen a number of good milestones lately — the WHO reaffirmed that those who consistently take antiretroviral treatment and maintain undetectable viral loads don’t transmit the virus during sex. But those who’ve acquired HIV infection tell state that they’re still fighting for their lives. Survivors state that they need safer housing and other services. The article can be found here

Abortion

Mifepristone Court Ruling

This week a US appeals court ruled that access to the abortion pill should be preserved with some limits, rejecting part of an order from a Texas judge that would have banned the sale of the drug across the country. A court ruled that mifepristone, one of two pills used in medication abortions, should not be prescribed past seven weeks of pregnancy or via telemedicine. However, a previous stay by the Supreme Court means this won’t go into effect right away. The pills will remain on the market in states where abortion is legal and available by telemedicine and mail for the time being.

Colorado

Colorado’s Medical Board will attempt to decide something no other regulatory body in the country has: whether a controversial treatment to try to “reverse” the effects of an abortion pill is something doctors should be providing. The evidence for the practice is spotty. Federal authorities have not approved it. No clinical trials — the most rigorous type of research — have validated its safety or its efficacy in humans. As a result, the nation’s leading organization for OB-GYN doctors says that the idea of abortion reversal “is not supported by science.”

Nebraska

A Nebraska judge has rejected an effort to block a ban on abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy and restrictions on gender-affirming surgery. Lancaster County District Court Judge Maret sided with the state and allowed a law approved by the Nebraska Legislature earlier this year to remain in effect.

Oklahoma

The federal government promises free health care for Native Americans, which it provides through both federally-operated clinics and funding for Native American tribes and private organizations to run their own clinics. The federal government requires its own clinics to provide emergency contraception, but many tribally-run clinics do not. An investigation by Medill News Service determined that around half of the Native American health care facilities in Oklahoma don’t provide Plan B, a medication that can prevent pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex or birth control failure. The state is home to 38 federally-recognized tribes and has one of the highest concentrations of Native Americans in the country. It also has one of the strictest abortion bans in the nation, with no exception for rape or  incest.

Oregon

Oregon’s governor Kotek joined advocates to celebrate the state’s push to strengthen abortion access and enact minimum nurse staffing standards for hospitals. At a ceremonial bill signing, Kotek signed two health care bills. The first bill would shore up abortion rights and access to transgender health care. The bill was central to the six-week walkout of GOP senators in the Oregon Senate this session. The other bill would put in place minimum nurse staffing standards for hospitals.

LBGTQ

Gender Affirming Care

A growing number of Midwestern cities are declaring themselves safe havens for gender-affirming health care, often in direct defiance of laws passed by conservatives at the state level. While state legislatures across the Midwest are controlled overwhelmingly by Republicans, cities and metropolitan areas tend to lean more Democratic, driving some local leaders to introduce resolutions that distinguish the policy priorities of liberal communities from those of the conservative states in which they are located. The article can be found here

Oklahoma

Oklahoma has issued an executive order, which applies to government agencies, schools, and state institutions — stipulates definitions for certain terms, like “man,” “boy,” “woman,” “girl,” “father,” and “mother.” The narrow definitions in the so-called “Women’s Bill of Rights” exclude trans and nonbinary people or anyone whose gender does not fit into the binary categories of woman or man. The order’s language does not make room for those with chromosomal variations, like intersex people.

Tennessee

Vanderbilt University Medical Center is facing a federal civil rights investigation after turning the medical records of transgender patients over to Tennessee’s attorney general, hospital officials have confirmed. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ investigation comes just weeks after two patients sued VUMC for releasing their records to Attorney General Skrmetti late last year.

Texas

Medical experts pushed back against Texas lawmakers’ assertions that puberty blockers and hormone therapies are experimental and put young transgender patients at risk as they testified at a hearing that seeks to block a new law banning such medical treatment for kids. Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, a doctor who treats adolescents and has been providing gender-affirming care for 17 years, said the body of medical research demonstrates these treatments have a high success rate in improving mental health outcomes of trans youth. But in her clinical work, the evidence is more obvious.

North Carolina

The North Carolina Legislature voted to override Democratic Governor Cooper’s veto of  three bills that would ban gender-affirming health care for transgender minors, prevent transgender women and girls from competing on female sports teams and limit classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity.

COVID-19

The number of people in the US hospitalized with COVID-19 rose 14.3% to 10,320 for the week ending Aug. 5, marking the fourth straight week of increase, though the rate is still far lower than the 42,813 admissions recorded in the same period last year, according to the CDC. Hospitals across the Southeast recorded the highest COVID-19 admission rates in the country, and emergency department data show the highest case numbers among people aged 75 and older.