Appropriations

Pandemic Aid

An effort to secure more COVID-19 funding remains stalled because of Title 42. A federal judge on Friday blocked the Biden administration from lifting a border control policy that has allowed immigration officials to turn away migrants at the border.  Republicans want to preserve the pandemic-related border policy and have vowed to continue to block any COVID-19 aid bill unless they are permitted a vote on an amendment to keep the immigration restriction in place. That stance derailed a bipartisan $10 billion pandemic aid package (HR 4373) last month. The preliminary injunction issued by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana halted the lifting of Title 42 temporarily while a lawsuit brought by Republican state attorneys general unfolds. Border officials are pushing the administration for a supplemental funding bill to cover the costs of what could be a record number of migrants at the border if Title 42 is lifted.

Infant Formula

This week the Administration invoked the Defense Production Act to help manufacturers get the materials they need to ramp up production of infant formula during the national shortage. Two manufacturers — Abbott Nutrition and Reckitt — can now “add legally binding language to their orders with suppliers that will give them priority over other customers,” the administration said in a statement.

Also, this week, 35 tons of Swiss baby formula arrived via cargo plane in Indianapolis—enough to feed 9,000 babies and 18,000 toddlers. A second shipment arrived yesterday from Europe.  More deliveries are scheduled to arrive in the next few days.

On May 21, President Biden signed a bill which allows the Agriculture Department to waive administrative requirements for state agencies administering the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), if the requirements cannot be met during or up to 60 days after a national emergency, disaster, or supply chain disruption.

Gun Control

In response to the mass shootings in Texas this week, Senator Durbin said there would likely be a floor vote – HR  8 and HR 1446 – the House passed gun background check bills, after the Memorial Day break. HR 8 would expand background checks for gun sales, and HR 1446 would increase to 10 days the time a purchaser must wait for that background check. Senate Democrats have been unable to garner enough Republican support to pass any sort of gun legislation following mass shootings, leaving the chances of getting 60 votes highly unlikely. House Majority Leader Hoyer said the chamber will vote on gun-related legislation when it returns in June, pointing to a red flag bill (HR 2377) by Rep. McBath, D-Ga, which would expand the categories of persons who are prohibited from purchasing, shipping, transporting, possessing, or receiving a firearm or ammunition, and establishes procedures for federal court to issue extreme risk protection orders. Republicans are focused on increasing federal funds for school security measures, but Senator Schumer said that Democrats would not be satisfied with only that approach. Today the Senate will hold a procedural vote on domestic terrorism legislation (HR 350) that was prioritized after the mass shooting in Buffalo, but the bill is expected to be blocked by Republicans.

Other Legislation and Happenings Around the Nation

HIV/STDs:  This week the CDC released an HIV surveillance report – “Diagnoses of HIV Infection in the United States and Dependent Areas 2020.”  The report stated that there were 30,403 HIV infections in 2020, down from 36,585 in 2019, a 17 percent decrease. However, the agency attributes nearly all of that decline to “underdiagnosis.” The federal government is now warning that the country won’t meet the goals outlined in its 2019 Ending the HIV Epidemic plan, i.e. reducing new infections to under 3,000 per year by 2030. The report found that there was a drop-off in testing triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, and that HIV infections might instead be on the rise and going undiagnosed and untreated. Recent federal data found a surge during the first year of the pandemic, for example, in the country’s most common sexually transmitted diseases — syphilis and gonorrhea — as testing sites closed, labs ran short on supplies and public health workers tasked with contact tracing for STDs and HIV shifted their focus to COVID-19. “When I see that STIs came back with a vengeance, it just makes me pause and say that we really need to watch our HIV numbers as they roll in over the next year. It’s like a canary in the coal mine for me looking at the STI data, because it just tells me that the lockdowns resulted in behaviors that made it more difficult to go to services and get tested, but people were still having sex and likely injecting drugs.” Demetre Daskalakis, the CDC’s director of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention stated. The CDC report can be found here. 

Monkeypox

The CDC has alerted health departments that the number of monkeypox cases has continued to rise, and also issued an alert for travelers as more cases of the disease are confirmed across the globe. Federal health officials are advising that anyone, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity, can acquire monkeypox, and concerns continue about homophobia in early reporting. At the same time, some of the earliest cases in the US and Europe have involved men who have sex with men, and federal officials are warning that social networks and upcoming events like Pride create an increased need for vigilance among men who have sex with men.  Federal officials have also clarified that the disease is spread through close skin-to-skin contact, contact with items such as sheets or towels that may have contacted infected skin, or very close respiratory contact. The virus is not considered a sexually transmitted infection but is spread through very close contact, including intimate or sexual contact.  Anyone in close contact with a person who has the virus is considered at high risk of infection. “Many diseases can be spread through sexual contact. You could get a cough or a cold through sexual contact, but it doesn’t mean that it’s a sexually transmitted disease,” Andy Seale, an STD, HIV, and hepatitis adviser to the WHO stated. To date, the disease has sickened more than 200 people across the world. Dr. Raj Panjabi, Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense at the National Security Council, says the fewer than 10 cases seen in the US have not been severe with “flu-like symptoms and a rash which can be painful but resolves in two to four weeks” and aren’t likely to get much worse. “Historically in countries with weaker health care systems less than 1% of patients have died from this milder strain,” Panjabi said. “We have access to vaccines and even treatments here in the U.S., and so the risk we believe is substantially lower.”

Abortion

Oklahoma: On May 25, 2022, Oklahoma implemented the strictest anti-abortion law in the nation, giving the country a preview of a possible post-Roe future. Governor Stitt signed legislation to prohibit most abortions beginning at fertilization and allows private citizens to sue anyone who “aids or abets” a woman seeking an abortion at any point in her pregnancy. The woman pursuing the procedure could not be sued. In a statement, Stitt said he was proud to sign the legislation.

Michigan: This week, Governor Whitmer issued an executive directive informing state agencies to not cooperate with any other state or authority attempting to prosecute anyone who obtains, provides or assists with obtaining an abortion or other forms of reproductive health care. The directive also calls on applicable agencies to increase protections for reproductive health care and take steps to raise awareness about availability of reproductive health care and forms of contraception.

COVID-19

Vaccines for Children under Five

In May 23, Pfizer and BioNTech announced they plan to finish submitting data to the FDA on three doses of their Covid-19 vaccine for the 19 million children in the U.S. under age 5 and still ineligible for any COVID-19 vaccine. The companies released top-line results showing that three pediatric doses of their Covid-19 vaccine generated a comparable immune response in children ages 6 months to under 5 years as two full doses did in young adults — the primary end goal the FDA set for pediatric vaccine manufacturers. Three doses of the vaccine also appeared to reduce cases of symptomatic disease by 80.3 percent within the age group. No date has been set for the FDA advisory committee to meet to discuss the companies’ application. The FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks has pledged the agency will “move quickly without sacrificing our standards” in evaluating tot-sized doses from both Pfizer and Moderna. The FDA has tentatively set a June 15 date for its scientific advisers to publicly review the two companies’ vaccines. After the advisers weigh in, the FDA determines whether to authorize the shot.

B Kaye Hayes

Ms. Hayes has been selected as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Infectious Disease and the Director of the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health. During her federal tenure, she worked with the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS to implement the Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative and the National HIV/AIDS Strategy launch at the White House last December, along with the release of strategic plans on HIV, STI, Hepatitis and Vaccines, Blood Safety Report, and the Tick-Borne Disease Congressional Report. Ms. Hayes previously served as the Acting Director of the OASH Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy where she provided policy development, coordination on HIV, vaccines, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections, blood and tissue safety, antimicrobial resistance, and tick-borne diseases programs.  Mr. Hayes received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree in public administration from Georgia State University, with a concentration in strategic management and human resource management.