This Week in Congress

House and Senate

The House and Senate were in recess this week and will return for legislative business next week.

Other Newsworthy Topics

NCSD Letter on Bicillin: This week NCSD sent a letter to Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Washington) responding to their request for information on the increase in drug shortages. The letter highlights the shortage of Bicillin and the detrimental effect on the treatment of syphilis, and asks that the Committees address ways to avoid future shortages. The letter can be found here

New CDC Director

Dr, Mandy Cohen, the former North Carolina health secretary is set to become the new CDC Director on July 9. 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. The article can be found here

Supreme Court Rulings

Limits LGBTQ Protections

The Court ruled that nondiscrimination laws could not be enforced against businesses that offer expressive products and services. The ruling significantly weakens laws that protect LGBT people and others against discrimination. Justice Sotomayor said the court’s ruling opens the door for a wide variety of businesses to discriminate against prospective customers. She read portions of her dissent from the bench — an unusual move that signaled she felt especially strongly. It was the second day in a row that Sotomayor dissented from the bench. On Thursday, she read long portions of her dissent in the court’s decision ending affirmative action. The court ruling can be found here

Affirmative Action

In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, the Supreme Court struck down “race-based” college admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, holding that they violate the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The ruling can be found here:

Student Loans

After last week’s Supreme Court’s ruling, which struck down the President’s student loan debt plan, the Biden Administration unveiled details of a new student loan repayment program. The program would permanently reshape how borrowers repay their federal student loans.

The ruling can be found here

The new plan can be found here

Other Legislative Happenings Around the Nation

Abortion

Republicans are split on whether their presidential contenders should embrace a federal 15-week ban on abortion as the party tries to find its footing on the issue going into 2024. Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) vowed to back a national 15-week ban on the procedure and former Vice President Pence also urged the other candidates to embrace a federal 15-week ban.

Self-Managed Medication Abortion

A recent study found that an overwhelming majority of women were able to end unwanted pregnancies with abortion medications on their own and without additional medical procedures, even if they were well beyond the first trimester. The study was based on the experiences of 264 women who were nine to 16 weeks pregnant in Argentina, Nigeria and an unnamed country in Southeast Asia where abortion is illegal. Almost half of the women took only one drug, misoprostol, instead of the standard two-drug regimen, mifepristone and misoprostol.

Iowa

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds is asking lawmakers to return to Des Moines for a special legislative session beginning July 11 to restrict abortion. Reynolds did not specify what abortion law the Republican-majority legislature will pass when it convenes. The special session is scheduled to begin less than a month after the Iowa Supreme Court deadlocked 3-3 on Reynolds’ request to reinstate the “fetal heartbeat” law she signed in 2018. That law never took effect. Last month’s Iowa Supreme Court decision kept abortion legal in Iowa until 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Maine

The Maine legislature has given final approval to a proposal to expand access to abortions later in pregnancy, sending the bill to the governor for her signature. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills is expected to sign the bill which will give Maine one of the Nation’s least restrictive abortion laws.

Ohio

Abortion rights backers, hoping to enshrine abortion rights in Ohio’s constitution, delivered nearly double the number of signatures needed to place an amendment on the statewide ballot this fall. Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights said they dropped off more than 700,000 petition signatures to Republican Ohio Secretary of State.

Contraceptive Access

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) has expanded access to over-the-counter birth control. Arizonans 18 and older will soon be able to go to their local pharmacy and purchase contraceptives without a doctor’s prescription.

LGBTQ Issues

Florida

Six weeks after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that places restrictions and bans on gender-affirming care, many transgender Floridians feel uncertainty and dread about their future in the state. The bill signed into law May 17, has been criticized for its broad restrictions on health care for the estimated 94,900 transgender people who live in Florida. Under the law, a ban is placed on all gender-affirming care for minors. and further limits are put into place on how transgender adults can receive care.

North Carolina

North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a trio of bills aimed at LGBTQ+ youth that would ban gender-affirming health care for minors, restrict transgender participation in school sports and limit classroom instruction about gender identity and sexuality.

COVID-19

A CDC report estimates that nearly one in four Americans older than 16 had not been infected with SARS-CoV-2 as of December 2022, while 77.5% had antibodies against the virus from prior infection and 96.7% had antibodies from vaccination, prior infection, or both. The estimates, based on analyses of blood donation samples from October to December 2022, show the percentage of infection-induced seroprevalence was highest among people ages 16 to 29 at 87.1% and lowest among adults 65 and older at 56.5%.

MPOX

A 21-study meta-analysis finds that the median incubation period for the global mpox outbreak that began last year is 7 days, symptoms vary widely, and immunocompromised people with HIV make up 36.1% of documented cases. The study is published in Archives of Virology.

340B

Senate health committee ranking Republican Bill Cassidy (LA) is the latest senator to want to address potential misuse of the 340B drug discount program by its participating hospitals, but it’s unclear whether a 340B reform bill could be drafted in time and gather enough support to be included in a broader package of drug price control measures. A bipartisan group of senators are drafting 340B reform legislation, asking stakeholders for input by July 28 on specific policies they feel would help tackle the lack of transparency and accountability in the program. That group includes Senate health committee member Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Senate Finance member Ben Cardin (D-MD). Cassidy’s legislative changes would revamp the 340B program, require more transparency and accountability from 340B participants. He said this is necessary to preserve the program’s intent of providing prescription drugs at discounted prices to patients who are uninsured, low-income, reside in rural communities or belong to other forms of underserved populations. Cassidy’s 340B reforms are similar to what House GOP lawmakers have supported, which would require 340B hospitals to annually report their total 340B savings and other key metrics including patient demographics and charity care information to HRSA.