Health Care Checkup
February 5, 2021
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In the early hours of Friday morning, the Senate voted 51-50 on a budget resolution, the first step in the process that will allow Democrats to move forward with an attempt to pass President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan by a simple majority with a legislative tool known as budget reconciliation. While the House has already adopted its own budget resolution, a second vote will likely come today to agree on the Senate’s budget language.
On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) reached a deal on the organizing resolution for the evenly split chamber. The leaders decided that control of the Senate committees would be transferred to the Democrats, giving Democrats full control of the Senate.
This week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced a swath of new committee appointments, including appointments for committees such as the Veteran’s Affairs Committee and the Natural Resources Committee. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) announced the Democratic membership and the chairs of the Ways and Means Committee’s subcommittees for the 117th Congress. Additionally, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced Senate Democratic committee memberships for the 117th Congress. On Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced Senate Republican committee assignments for the 117th Congress. Also on Wednesday, Kevin Brady (R-TX) announced the House Ways and Means Subcommittee Republican Leaders and Subcommittee assignments for Republican Members of the Committee for the 117th Congress.
On Tuesday, President Biden announced that states will receive an increased vaccine supply, that the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program will launch, and that states will receive extra Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reimbursements. Additionally, on Thursday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered more than 1,000 active-duty troops to help speed up state Covid-19 vaccination efforts. The Administration also announced plans on Friday to use the Defense Production Act to boost vaccine and at-home testing supplies.
Also this week, Johnson & Johnson applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an emergency use authorization (EUA) for its COVID-19 vaccine. Last week, the company announced that its single-dose shot has an overall efficacy rate of 66% at preventing moderate to severe cases of the virus. The FDA will hold a meeting of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) on Feb. 26, 2021, to discuss Johnson & Johnson’s request for EUA.
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What to Expect Next Week: Next week, House committees will begin the markup process for the reconciliation bill that will include Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief package. When the committees are done with their markups, the bill will head over to the Budget Committee, then to the Rules Committee, and then to the House floor. Once the House votes on the bill, it will head to the Senate. Stay tuned as this process continues to unfold.
Also coming up in the week ahead, oral arguments will begin in the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. House impeachment managers plan to allege that former President Trump incited the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol building on January 6. The impeachment trial will be broadcast live on major cable news networks and C-SPAN.
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Democrats Forge Ahead with Plan to Pass COVID-19 Relief with Simple Majority in Senate
In the early hours of Friday morning, the Senate voted 51-50 on a budget that will allow Democrats to move forward with an attempt to pass President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan by a simple majority with a legislative tool known as Budget Reconciliation. While the House has already adopted its own budget resolution, a second vote will likely come today to agree on the Senate’s budget language. On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced that they filed a joint budget resolution for Fiscal Year 2021. The introduction of the joint budget kicked off the process for enacting a budget reconciliation bill to pass much of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill with a simple majority. President Biden has held virtual meetings with both Democratic and Republican Senate leadership this week to reach a bipartisan resolution, however the parties have not yet mutually agreed on a counter proposal to the President’s original package. Republicans have offered an alternative $618 billion COVID relief package. However, it was reported that both President Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen declared the offer was not enough. Democrats are pushing to have a relief package passed by March to avoid Americans losing expiring aid, such as extra unemployment assistance. It is expected that over the next few weeks, Democrats will race to put together a COVID relief bill that will gain unanimous support from their party.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Come to an Agreement on Senate Organizing Resolution
On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) reached a deal on the organizing resolution for the evenly split chamber. The leaders decided that control of the Senate committees would be transferred to the Democrats, giving Democrats full control of the Senate. In a statement, Majority Leader Schumer said that the committees will now be able to “…promptly set up and get to work with Democrats holding the gavels.” Prior to the Senators reaching an agreement, McConnell refused to sign-off on any agreement unless Schumer agreed in advance that Democrats would not eliminate legislative filibusters. However, McConnell’s original stance changed when Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) said they would not vote to get rid of filibusters. In a statement, McConnell said, “Now that two Senate Democrats have confirmed they will not vote to eliminate the legislative filibuster and Leader Schumer has agreed to protect specific procedural customs, I am pleased to announce we have finalized the formal power-sharing agreement for the 117th Congress. This power-sharing agreement is almost identical to the 2001 agreement and will allow the Senate to be fairly run as an evenly-split body.” Find the full list of the new Senate committee chairs here.
New Congressional Committee Assignments Announced
On Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced a swath of new committee appointments, including appointments for committees such as the Veteran’s Affairs Committee and the Natural Resources Committee. Also on Tuesday, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) announced the Democratic membership and the chairs of the Ways and Means Committee’s subcommittees for the 117th Congress. Additionally, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced Senate Democratic committee memberships for the 117th Congress. On Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced Senate Republican committee assignments for the 117th Congress. Also on Wednesday, Kevin Brady (R-TX) announced the House Ways and Means Subcommittee Republican Leaders and Subcommittee assignments for Republican Members of the Committee for the 117th Congress.
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COVID-19 Vaccine Updates
Johnson & Johnson applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an emergency use authorization (EUA) for its COVID-19 vaccine. Last week, the company announced that its single-dose shot has an overall efficacy rate of 66% at preventing moderate to severe cases of the virus. The FDA will hold a meeting of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) on Feb. 26, 2021, to discuss Johnson & Johnson’s request for EUA. The Advisory Committee will then make a recommendation to the FDA on whether to grant the EUA. If authorized, the vaccine would be the third in the U.S. approved to fight the deadly virus.
States have increasingly voiced their frustrations with Tiberius, the federal data system that states have used to track coronavirus vaccinations. At Tuesday’s House Energy and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee hearing on the pandemic, Michigan’s chief medical executive, Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, said that her state has faced great difficulty with navigating the complex data program. While Tiberius was developed to give the government a centralized way to track vaccines as they are distributed from manufacturers to state hubs, the system has been full of gaps in data and inconsistencies. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has acknowledged that there are flaws with the program and that HHS is working to “develop new features to enhance the system’s capabilities.”
Both Pfizer and Moderna have begun examining whether booster shots will be needed to bolster protection from their COVID-19 vaccines. Particularly, the companies are trying to determine whether a booster dose would better protect the public from the emerging variants of the virus. If the companies decide to move forward with recommending a third dose of their vaccines, then the third dose would likely be given to vaccine recipients six to 12 months after receiving the first dose.
Data out of the United Kingdom shows that the Oxford-AstraZeneca two-dose COVID-19 vaccine has an 82.4% efficacy rate at the 3-month mark. However, one of the most promising findings from the analysis is that the vaccine appears to protect against transmission of the virus. An analysis of PCR positive swabs in the UK study showed a 67% reduction in positive swabs among those vaccinated. While the vaccine has been approved in the UK since late December, AstraZeneca has not yet filed for an EUA from the FDA. It has been reported that the company will not apply for an EUA in the U.S. until its 30,000 person U.S. vaccine trial is complete, which may happen sometime this spring.
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Biden-Harris Administration Announces Several COVID-19 Supports for States
On Tuesday, President Biden announced that states will receive an increased vaccine supply, that the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program will launch, and that states will receive extra Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reimbursements. Last week, the Biden-Harris Administration announced that it would begin shipping 10 million COVID vaccine doses per week to states. This week, the Administration announced that it would boost this number by 5% to 10.5 million per week. This marks a 22% increase from shipments in weeks prior, which were around 8.6 million doses per week. The Administration will maintain this as the minimum supply level for the next three weeks and will continue to work with manufacturers to ramp up supply. The Federal Retail Pharmacy Program for the COVID vaccine will launch on February 11. This public-private partnership program will allow eligible vaccine recipients to get vaccinated at various pharmacies across the United States, such as at CVS and Walgreens. The Administration also announced that states will be retroactively reimbursed for FEMA-eligible services, such as masks, gloves, and mobilization of the National Guard, backdated to January 2020 when the pandemic began. Additionally, on Friday, it was announced that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has ordered more than 1,000 active-duty troops to help speed up state Covid-19 vaccination efforts. The order will send 1,110 troops to five FEMA COVID vaccination centers. The Administration will also begin utilizing the Defense Production Act to help increase manufacturing supplies for Pfizer’s COVID vaccine, as well as to increase the production of at-home COVID tests.
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SENATE HEARINGS AND EXECUTIVE SESSIONS |
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HOUSE HEARINGS AND EXECUTIVE SESSIONS |
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ADMINISTRATION ANNOUNCEMENTS |
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Food and Drug Administration
Guidance Documents from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Institutes of Health
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