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Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Lawmakers Meet To Discuss $4B Extension Of VA Choice Program
CQ Roll Call: House Veterans Affairs Huddles On VA Choice Program
The House Veterans Affairs Committee will discuss in a closed meeting Tuesday night a roughly $4 billion extension to a private medical care program known as the Veterans Choice Program, committee leaders confirmed to CQ. Lawmakers need to enact legislation moving more money into the program, as funding is projected to run out by mid-August, VA Secretary David Shulkin told lawmakers at an appropriations hearing in June. Shulkin was criticized by lawmakers for administratively diverting care requests to other programs, absent more money. (Mejdrich, 7/18)
In other news from Capitol Hill —
CQ Roll Call: House Appropriators Keep NIH Funds, Nix School Choice Spending
House appropriators working on the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill turned down a number of White House proposals in a report released Tuesday, including the administration's request to limit administrative costs for the National Institutes of Health and boost funding for apprenticeships...The report comes a day before the full House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up the $156 billion spending bill that would provide $5 billion less than the 2017 enacted level (PL 115-31). At Wednesday’s markup, Appropriations Committee Democrats plan to offer amendments to save the $286 million Title X Family Planning Program and stop other funding cuts to women’s health programs. (Wilkins and Siddons, 7/18)
