Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
House GOP's Stopgap Funding Plan Opposed By Own Members, Senate Dems
The Hill: House GOP Tensions In Shutdown Drama Boil Over
Tensions in the House GOP over how to avoid — or not avoid — a potential government shutdown are coming to a boil, with frustrations spilling over into public jabs and airing of grievances without a clear path forward to fund the government past Sept. 30. “It’s an unmitigated disaster right now on the majority side,” Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), an appropriator, said on MSNBC on Monday. “I’m fearful of what this leads to.” Republicans are bitterly divided on a short-term stopgap bill that would fund the government through Oct. 31. The measure includes an 8 percent cut to everything but Defense and Veterans Affairs, along with the bulk of the House GOP’s border crackdown bill. (Brooks and Schnell, 9/18)
Roll Call: House Stopgap Bill Falters With No Senate Backup Plan In Sight
Democrats controlling the Senate have no interest in the 30-day continuing resolution House Republicans unveiled Sunday night, which cuts most domestic agencies by more than 8 percent and would impose a range of border-related restrictions that President Joe Biden has already threatened to veto. But the Senate itself is tied in knots over appropriations, with a $279 billion, three-bill fiscal 2024 spending package stymied by procedural objections to considering more than just the base bill for the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects. (Quigley, 9/18)
Politico: A Bill To Increase Health Care Price Transparency Was Pulled From The House Floor
A bill to increase health care price transparency was pulled from the House floor this week after some top Democrats signaled they would oppose the legislation. The bill, the "Lower Costs, More Transparency Act," was being brought up under a fast-track process that requires a two-thirds vote. Some key Democrats like Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Education and Workforce Committee, had signaled they would oppose the bill, meaning it could have lacked enough votes to pass under a suspension of the rules. (Wu, 9/18)
In other health news from Capitol Hill —
Politico: Virginia Rep. Jennifer Wexton Will Not Seek Reelection, Citing New Diagnosis
Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) announced on Monday that she will not seek reelection after receiving an updated, more serious diagnosis of progressive supranuclear palsy. Wexton revealed in April that she’d been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, saying at the time that she hoped to continue serving “for many years to come.” But she sought additional testing after she had not been making the progress “to manage my symptoms that I had hoped,” Wexton, 55, said in a statement, leading to the new diagnosis of PSP, which she called “a kind of Parkinson’s on steroids.” The two conditions are often confused when first diagnosing a patient because they have similar symptoms. (Frazier, 9/18)
Stat: Rep. Adam Smith On His Mental Health Struggles, And The Country's
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) knew when he hit rock bottom. “I woke up one morning in early April of 2016 and seriously considered the possibility that I might never be able to get out of bed,” he opens his recent memoir, “Lost and Broken,” which details the six years in which “crippling anxiety” and chronic pain dominated his life even as he bounced back and forth from the Capitol to northern Seattle, the district he has represented for nearly three decades. (Owermohle, 9/19)
