Fight Over Obamacare Premiums Could Trigger Federal Government Shutdown
Senate and House Democrats are demanding that Republicans stop a sharp spike in Affordable Care Act premiums. In other news, House lawmakers have included an amendment in their 2026 spending bill to fund mRNA vaccine research — in direct opposition to HHS chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Bloomberg:
US Government Shutdown Threatened By Democrats Over Obamacare
Democrats are threatening to block a bill needed to avert an Oct. 1 US government shutdown unless Republicans agree to stop a sharp spike in Obamacare health insurance premiums or meet other demands by the minority party. Obamacare insurance subsidies, which have slashed premiums for millions of Americans, will expire Jan. 1, and out-of-power Democrats said they view the stopgap funding bill as their best legislative chance. Republicans need at least seven Democratic votes in the Senate to pass the bill. (Wasson and Dennis, 9/10)
Stat:
Lawmakers Snub Kennedy, Include MRNA Vaccine Funding In Spending Bill
House appropriators have snubbed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by including an amendment in their 2026 spending bill that specifically funds continued messenger RNA vaccine research, despite his effort to roll it back. (Cirruzzo, 9/10)
On children's nutrition —
MedPage Today:
House Hearing On Kids' Nutrition Veers Off In Many Directions
A House hearing on Tuesday aimed at discussing ways to improve children's diets -- but also veered off into many other directions. At the House Oversight Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services hearing on "Better Meals, Fewer Pills: Making Our Children Healthy Again," Rep. Wesley Bell (D-Mo.) said, "The health of the American people, especially our children, face significant risk when the most pressing threat is the growing anti-vaccine rhetoric that undermines decades of scientific consensus and life-saving health policy." (Frieden, 9/10)
CNN:
More Of The World’s Children Are Now Obese Than Underweight, UNICEF Warns
More school-age children and adolescents are now obese than underweight, a new report from the United Nations’ children’s agency, UNICEF, has revealed, with 188 million young people affected. (Woodyatt, 9/10)
More on federal funding cuts and DEI —
AP:
Judge Blocks Trump Policy Ending Social Services For Immigrants
A federal judge on Wednesday blocked Trump administration restrictions on services for immigrants in the country illegally, including the federal preschool program Head Start, health clinics and adult education. The order from the judge in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island applies to 20 states and the District of Columbia, whose attorneys general, all Democrats, sued the administration. It puts the administration’s reinterpretation of a Clinton-era federal policy on hold while the case is decided. (Seminera, 9/10)
The Washington Post:
Education Department Ends Grants For Some Minority College Students
The Trump administration said Wednesday that it will withhold $350 million in grants to hundreds of colleges that serve large populations of minority students, calling the decades-old programs discriminatory. The Education Department said it would cease funding eight discretionary grant programs that individually support Black, Native, Hispanic and Asian American students across the country. The agency said it will reallocate funding for fiscal 2025 to other priorities. (Douglas-Gabriel and Rosenzweig-Ziff, 9/10)
Bloomberg:
Harvard Says US To Restore Some Research Funds After Freeze
Harvard University said it has received notice that some of the federal research funding frozen by the Trump administration is being restarted, although the money hasn’t started flowing yet. The notification followed a court victory for Harvard last week in which a federal judge ruled that the US illegally froze more than $2 billion in research dollars for the school. It can take several days for the university to receive authorized funding after submitting a request. (Lorin and Ryan, 9/10)
KFF Health News:
Watch: Patient Numbers At NIH Hospital Tumble After Trump Cuts
Government documents viewed by KFF Health News show a drop in patients receiving care this year at the National Institutes of Health’s renowned research hospital, a 200-bed facility at NIH headquarters in Maryland. We previously reported a decrease in the number of patients being treated at the NIH Clinical Center from February through April. Since then, we’ve obtained newer data showing the drop has continued. (Pradhan, 9/11)
