Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Lawmakers Agree To Spending Bill That Includes Puerto Rico Medicaid Funds, Bump To NIH Budget
The Associated Press: Lawmakers Settle On Hard-Fought $1 Trillion Spending Bill
Congressional Republicans and Democrats have reached agreement on a huge $1 trillion-plus spending bill that would fund most government operations through September but denies President Donald Trump money for a border wall and rejects his proposed cuts to popular domestic programs. Aides to lawmakers involved in the talks disclosed the agreement Sunday night after weeks of negotiations. The bill was made public in the pre-dawn hours Monday. ... The measure funds the remainder of the 2017 budget year, through Sept. 30, rejecting cuts to popular domestic programs targeted by Trump such as medical research and infrastructure grants. (Taylor, 5/1)
The Washington Post: Congress Reaches Deal To Keep Government Open Through September
Democrats fought to include $295 million to help Puerto Rico continue making payments to Medicaid, $100 million to combat opioid addiction, and increases in energy and science funding that Trump had proposed cutting. If passed, the legislation will ensure that Planned Parenthood continues to receive federal funding through September. (Snell, 4/30)
Stat: NIH To Get A $2 Billion Funding Boost As Congress Rebuffs Trump
The National Institutes of Health will get a $2 billion funding boost over the next five months, under a bipartisan spending deal reached late Sunday night in Congress. The agreement marks a sharp rejection of President Trump’s proposal to cut $1.2 billion from the medical research agency in the current fiscal year. The deal does not address funding for 2018, when Trump has called for a slashing the NIH’s budget by about a fifth, or $5.8 billion. (Facher, 5/1)
CQ Roll Call: Spending Package Would Provide $2 Billion Bump For NIH
Senior Republican appropriators already had indicated that they were not swayed by White House proposals seeking to cut NIH in fiscal 2017, the budget year that began Oct. 1. An Office of Management and Budget spreadsheet that was circulating in Washington last month suggested a $1.2 billion reduction for the NIH. (Young, 4/30)
CQ Roll Call: Omnibus Averts Puerto Rico Medicaid Shortfall
Lawmakers agreed to funnel $295.9 million to Puerto Rico’s Medicaid program in a fiscal 2017 omnibus to avert a funding shortfall that lawmakers say could have put about 900,000 poor people at risk of losing health care coverage. But without legislative changes to the way Puerto Rico’s Medicaid program works, the funding boost is likely not the last chunk of money Congress will need to agree to send the island territory, which is crippled by a $72 billion debt crisis. The financial fallout is the subject of a 2016 law (PL 114-187) that established an oversight board to help deal with the problem, but the Medicaid issue was not addressed. (Mejdruch, 5/1)
