First Edition: September 29, 2015

The Washington Post: Congress Moves Closer To Preventing A Shutdown
If all goes according to the plan hatched by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnnell (R-Ky.) and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), the House could clear the stop-gap funding bill on Wednesday, averting a shutdown with hours to spare before the Oct. 1 deadline. ... Cruz railed against Planned Parenthood and the Iran deal on the Senate floor following the vote Monday, saying he believes the “votes are cooked” in Congress. ... The Texas Republican and other conservatives for weeks have been calling on GOP leaders to confront Obama over abortion policies by using the spending bill needed to avert a shutdown this week to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood. But they are now focusing their attention on December. (Snell and Zezima, 9/28)

The Associated Press: Senate Advances Stopgap Spending Bill To Avoid Shutdown
McConnell is under fire from tea partyers who demand that he fight harder against Planned Parenthood — even at the risk of a partial government shutdown — but McConnell is more concerned with protecting his 2016 re-election class from political damage if Republicans are blamed for a shutdown. (Taylor, 9/28)

Politico: Senate Easily Advances Bill To Avoid Shutdown
The suspense over whether the GOP-led Congress would keep the government open beyond Sept. 30 ended altogether when Speaker John Boehner announced his resignation plans last week. The stunning move ensures that the Ohio Republican would be free to rely on Democrats to pass a clean funding bill without political retribution from his conservative agitators. (Kim, 9/28)

Politico: Shutdown Clash To Return In Force By December
But the glide path to avoiding a shutdown this week sets up an even bigger clash in December, when lawmakers have to agree on a new funding bill for the new fiscal year. Democrats at both ends of the Capitol, as well as in the White House, will demand raising the current caps for domestic spending. But hawkish Republicans have long insisted on boosting cash for defense programs, while fiscal conservatives will abhor any additional spending overall. (Kim, 9/28)

Politico: Cruz Sternly Rebuked By GOP
Ted Cruz can’t even get a protest vote in the Senate anymore. On Monday night, Cruz’s colleagues ignored his attempt to disrupt Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s efforts to fund the government without attacking Planned Parenthood. In an unusual rebuke, even fellow Republicans denied him a “sufficient second” that would have allowed him a roll call vote. (Everett, 9/28)

The Washington Post: After Boehner, Conservatives Must Answer Crucial Question: Who’s Next?
Hard-line conservative Republicans, emboldened by their role in the resignation of House Speaker John A. Boehner, are struggling to recruit a candidate with enough political capital and grass-roots support to challenge Boehner’s heir apparent. That contender, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), announced his bid for speaker Monday, but by sharing Boehner’s relaxed personality and center-right Republican politics, he would almost certainly face similar problems from the conservative wing from the start and skepticism about whether he can truly give voice to the base’s frustrations. (Costa and DeBonis, 9/28)

The Associated Press: Planned Parenthood Makes First Hill Appearance Since Videos
In Planned Parenthood’s first congressional appearance since being embarrassed by surreptitiously recorded videos, the organization’s president said she is “proud” of its provision of fetal tissue for research but also sought to minimize the organ donations as a small part of its work. Trying to take the offensive, Cecile Richards also criticized the Republicans who control Congress for not investigating David Daleiden and the other anti-abortion activists who made the recordings. (Fram, 9/29)

NPR: Amid Controversy, Head Of Planned Parenthood Testifies Before Committee
The head of Planned Parenthood testifies Tuesday before a House committee investigating secretly recorded videos by a group that accuses Planned Parenthood of profiting from the sale of fetal tissue. (Ludden, 9/29)

USA Today: Republicans Try New Way To Defund Planned Parenthood, Avoiding Shutdown
Republicans this week will launch a new strategy to try to defund Planned Parenthood now that it's clear that Congress will vote this week to keep the government open without addressing the issue. The House also is expected to consider this week the creation of a select committee to investigate allegations that the nation's largest abortion provider discussed selling tissue and organs from aborted fetuses for profit. Planned Parenthood vehemently denies the allegation, saying that undercover videos taken by anti-abortion activists were heavily edited and misleading. (Kelly, 9/28)

The New York Times: Planned Parenthood To Offer Free S.T.D. Testing On National Pink Out Day
Planned Parenthood, which provides an array of health services, including abortions, through clinics and affiliates nationwide, is under criticism by Republicans over the use of aborted fetuses in medical research. The Republicans want to cut off all federal funding to Planned Parenthood, and some lawmakers have even threatened to shut down the federal government in order to do so. Fighting back, Planned Parenthood has declared Tuesday to be “National Pink Out Day,” and said it expected millions of supporters to rally in the group’s defense. (Herszenhorn, 9/28)

The Wall Street Journal: Lawmakers Seek Answers On Valeant’s Price Increases
Democrats on the House oversight committee are trying to force Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. to provide documents explaining hefty price increases for two heart drugs. (Rockoff, 9/28)

The Associated Press: Congressional Democrats Push For Valeant Pharma Subpoena
Congressional Democrats are pressing a Republican committee chairman to force a pharmaceutical company to turn over documents tied to price hikes imposed earlier this year. Members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform sent a letter Monday to Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, asking him to issue a subpoena to Valeant Pharmaceuticals and to invite the Canadian company to testify next week. (9/28)

The Associated Press: Medicare's $30M Ambulance-Ride Mystery
Medicare paid $30 million for ambulance rides for which no record exists that patients got medical care at their destination, the place where they were picked up or other critical information. The mystery ambulance rides are part of a bigger problem with Medicare payments for transporting patients, according to a federal audit being released Tuesday. (9/29)

The Associated Press: Study: Breast Cancer Detection Not Better With Computer Aid
Computer-assisted detection used in most U.S. mammograms adds no benefit to breast cancer screening while substantially increasing costs, a large study suggests. Some previous research said computer technology could serve almost as a second set of eyes for doctors. The technique uses special software to highlight suspicious-looking areas on mammogram images that radiologists who interpret the scans may have missed. The doctors then take another look before making a determination. (Tanner, 9/28)

The Associated Press: Planned Parenthood Sues Utah After It Cuts Off Federal Money
The Utah branch of Planned Parenthood sued the governor on Monday for ordering state agencies to cut off federal funding to the organization following the release of secretly recorded videos by an anti-abortion group. Republican Gov. Gary Herbert's action was unconstitutional and based on unfounded allegations, the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah said in federal court documents. (9/28)

The Washington Post: D.C. Mayor Wants To Use Private Ambulances To Improve 911 Response
D.C. . Mayor Muriel E. Bowser will propose using private ambulances to transport non-serious patients to hospitals, a change that comes after instances in which no city ambulances were available in life-or-death situations. (Davis and Williams, 9/28)

The Wall Street Journal: NYC Investigates New Outbreak Of Legionnaires’ Disease
New York City health officials are investigating seven cases of Legionnaires’ disease in the Bronx, about two months after an outbreak of the same type of pneumonia killed 12 people in the borough and sickened more than 100. The new cluster is associated with the Morris Park section of the Bronx, and is unrelated to the earlier outbreak, which was centered in the South Bronx, city officials said Monday. (Gay, 9/28)

Los Angeles Times: Foes Of California Vaccine Law File Petitions For Referendum
Opponents of California’s tough new vaccine law filed petitions Monday seeking to put a referendum on the issue on the November 2016 ballot, but it may be a month before elections officials determine whether the ballot measure qualifies. Former Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, who led the largely volunteer effort, issued a statement saying he hopes the law "will go down in infamy," added that the referendum effort was "sabotaged," but did not disclose how many signatures were being turned in by today's deadline. (McGreevy, 9/28)

Los Angeles Times: Mitch Katz Poised To Lead L.A. County's Consolidated Healthcare Agency
Amid a major reorganization of Los Angeles County's healthcare bureaucracy, physician and administrator Mitch Katz is poised to become arguably the most powerful nonelected official in the nation's largest local government. Katz currently heads the Department of Health Services, a system of county hospitals and clinics with 20,000 employees and an operating budget of $4.8 billion. Now, over the objections of a vocal group of critics, county supervisors appear prepared to place him atop a significantly larger agency that will consolidate his department with separate county mental health and public health operations. The new super health agency would account for nearly a third of the county's $27-billion budget. (Sewell, 9/29)

Los Angeles Times: Ex-Inmates Want L.A. County To Stop Dumping Mentally Ill Inmates On Skid Row
A group of former Los Angeles County jail inmates said Monday that a recent legal settlement between the Sheriff's Department and federal authorities will perpetuate the cycle of people with untreated mental illness bouncing back and forth between jail and skid row. The former inmates are seeking changes in the settlement that was reached this year as part of an effort to end abuse of inmates by sheriff's deputies and to improve chronically poor treatment of mentally ill inmates. (Sewell and Change, 9/28)