This Week in Congress

House

This week the House conducted no legislative business as Republicans worked to elect a Speaker of the House.

Senate

The Senate was in session and conducted votes on several joint resolutions and nominations.

Speaker of the House of Representatives

After two failed attempts to elect Rep. Jordan as Speaker (lacking 20 votes on the first ballot and 22 on the second) the House will vote again today. After the failed votes, the House GOP conference met again to persuade more members to vote for Jordan but made no progress, underscoring the gridlock within the House GOP. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., said that the meeting won Jordan no new backers, and that it was obvious to Jordan he had no path to the gavel. “You know how smart this guy is, right? And he doesn’t wear glasses — he can see the writing on the wall.” House  Republicans abandoned a proposal to install Speaker Pro Tempore McHenry in a more official role, possibly through December. Rep. Jordan supported this effort, but with little GOP backing to empower McHenry, that effort was abandoned. It’s unclear if Democrats would support an effort to empower McHenry without receiving concessions from Republicans. During a press conference, Rep. Jordan made clear he was not abandoning his bid to become Speaker of the House. “We need to get the appropriations process moving so that the key elements of our government are funded and funded in the right way, particularly our military. “We need to get to work for the American people. We need to do what we said we were going to do. We need to do what we told them we were going to do when they elected us and put us in office and, frankly, we can’t do that if the House isn’t open. We can’t open the House until we get [a] speaker.”

Threats Against Members and Their Families

Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, said she had received “credible death threats” after she switched from voting for Jordan in Tuesday’s first ballot for Speaker to voting for Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, in Wednesday’s second ballot. “Someone who threatens another with bodily harm or tries to suppress differing opinions undermines opportunity for unity and regard for freedom of speech,” Miller-Meeks wrote on X. “This is abhorrent and has no place in civil discourse,” Jordan spokesman Russell Dye said. “No one should receive threats, and it needs to stop.” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) says his wife received multiple anonymous text messages that warned what would happen to his political career if he didn’t back Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-Ohio) run for the House speaker role.

Federal Happenings

Supplemental Aid to Israel and Ukraine

The White House is expected to send Congress a $105 billion supplemental package that will include military, intelligence, and humanitarian aid for Israel to fight its war with Hamas, as well as defense assistance for Ukraine and Taiwan. Majority Leader Schumer said the Senate will “spring into action and move it as soon as we can.” Minority Leader McConnell said the chamber must “take strong and decisive action” to provide security aid to the three allies. U.S. “global interests come [with] global responsibilities,” he added. Other funding that could be added to the supplemental includes an investment in the U.S. submarine industrial base.

National Defense Authorization Act

Members of the House Democratic Women’s Caucus warned defense committee leaders Tuesday that including provisions that limit abortion access in the fiscal 2024 defense authorization bill would make it impossible for them to support the bill’s final passage.

PAHPA Reauthorization

While reauthorization of a critical pandemic preparedness bill that recently expired was briefly discussed at a House Oversight & Accountability hearing,  Republicans kept their focus on the theory that COVID-19 originated in a Chinese lab. GOP lawmakers repeated their concerns, which Democrats don’t share, that federal health agencies aren’t adequately overseeing pathogen research, making a bipartisan reauthorization of the pandemic law seem less likely.

NIH Director Nominee

Monica Bertagnolli, nominee to be NIH Director, faced detailed policy questions about drug costs and biomedical research during yesterday’s hearing before the Senate HELP Committee. Democrats on the committee quizzed Bertagnolli on what she would do to lower drug costs, while Republicans focused on restoring public trust in the agency. The committee plans to vote Oct. 25 on whether to send her nomination to the Senate floor. Ranking member Bill Cassidy, R-La., told Bertagnolli that, if confirmed, much of her tenure would involve rebuilding the agency’s trust with the American public. “There are no questions regarding your scientific qualifications. But there are questions about your ability to lead NIH through this next phase,” he said, noting the many lightning rods surround the NIH, including gain-of-function research and care for transgender youth. Republican Sen. John Barrasso said “I do have serious concerns about the way the administration has handled the pandemic. I think it’s important that the position be filled with someone with a critical and open mind ready to tackle the challenges ahead and for these reasons, Chairman, I am supporting her nomination to serve as the director of the National Institutes of Health.” The top job at the NIH has been vacant since December 2021, when long-time director Francis Collins retired. Biden announced plans to nominate Bertagnolli in May, but HELP Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders delayed a hearing because of concerns that the Biden administration was not doing enough to lower the cost of prescription drugs. Chair Sanders  reiterated those concerns, noting the high cost of drugs in the U.S. compared to other western nations.

Other Happenings from Around the Nation

Abortion

Coverage

About a quarter of large U.S. employers heavily restrict coverage of legal abortions or don’t cover them at all under health plans for their workers, according to an employer health survey. The findings demonstrate another realm, beyond state laws, in which access to abortion care varies widely across America since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion last year in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Mifepristone

Conservative physician groups that succeeded in getting restrictions on the abortion drug mifepristone are now urging the US Supreme Court to undo the FDA’s  approval of the medication. The Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and other groups allege in a Supreme Court petition that the FDA approved the abortion medication mifepristone under an accelerated process meant for drugs to treat life-threatening illness despite pregnancy being “’a natural process’ that many women experience.” The groups are asking the high court to decide whether that approval and subsequent generic approval were unlawful. If the justices agree to consider the challenge, such a decision could severely limit abortion access.

Illinois

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is taking his abortion-rights advocacy nationwide, introducing a political organization to fund similar efforts outside Illinois, a state that legalized abortion by statute even before the Supreme Court invalidated the right to undergo the procedure. Think Big America has already funded support for constitutional amendments favoring abortion access in Ohio, Arizona, and Nevada.

Texas

The city of San Antonio is facing a lawsuit after budgeting $500,000 to support reproductive health services, including, potentially, transportation and lodging for people seeking abortions outside Texas. A group of anti-abortion organizations filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Bexar County, asking a state district judge to prohibit taxpayer dollars from going to organizations that help Texans travel out of the state for abortion.

LBGTQ

Pennsylvania

Philadelphia joined a growing number of Democratic-led cities calling themselves places of refuge for transgender people when Mayor Jim Kenney signed an executive order protecting those who travel there for gender-affirming care. The newly signed executive order prohibits the city from using any resources to assist states that seek to investigate or punish someone for providing or receiving gender-affirming care.

COVID-19

Next-Generation Covid Vaccines

The Biden administration announced that it is investing in three potential vaccines and a range of new technologies aimed at staying ahead of COVID-19. The $500 million investment across 13 projects is the latest installment in the federal government’s Project NextGen, a $5 billion plan to develop new COVID-19 treatments, vaccines, and ways of delivering them. The Health and Human Services Department this summer channeled $1.4 billion to similar goals.

HIV Drugs

The CDC has published preliminary data showing that more than one-third of individuals eligible for a commonly used HIV prevention drug received a prescription, as funding for a critical HIV program grew 16-fold between fiscal years 2019-2023. But the reach of this strategy is highly inconsistent among racial groups.