Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
GOP Lawmakers Say Fauci, Other NIH Leaders Were Reappointed Illegally
CBS News: Billions In NIH Grants Could Be Jeopardized By Appointments Snafu, Republicans Say
The Biden administration allegedly failed to correctly reappoint more than a dozen top-ranking National Institutes of Health leaders, House Republicans say, raising questions about the legality of billions in federal grants doled out by those officials over the last year. Their claim, detailed Friday in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, obtained by CBS News, follows a monthslong probe led by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the Republican chair of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, into vacancies at the agency. (Herridge and Tin, 7/10)
Roll Call: House Committee Questions Legality Of Fauci, NIH Appointments
The Department of Health and Human Services vigorously rejected the accusations, calling them political and inaccurate. The allegations mark an escalation in lawmakers’ attacks on Dr. Fauci. ... Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., has been especially critical of the agency’s research protocols amid questions about NIH’s ongoing funding of EcoHealth Alliance and its subcontracts with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. (Clason, 7/10)
Also —
Stat: NIH Fellows Want A Pay Raise. Will That Mean Less Money For Grants?
Several thousand research fellows at the National Institutes of Health want to unionize, in large part because they want to raise their pay stipends to something resembling a living wage near the agency headquarters in Bethesda, Md. But with a Congress that is looking on in suspicion at the NIH’s research and a debt ceiling deal that limits budget increases, where is the money going to come from? (Trang, 7/11)
Roll Call: Biden’s Long-Term Care Agenda Faces Headwinds
President Joe Biden has made it a major policy goal to improve long-term care options for older adults and people with disabilities by improving the working conditions of the people who care for them. Two separate but interconnected proposals would require minimum staffing requirements in nursing homes and require that 80 percent of Medicaid payments for home and community-based services go toward compensating direct care workers. (Hellmann, 7/11)
