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Congressional:
Senate Finance Committee and Senate HELP Committee Hold RFK Jr. Nomination Hearings
On Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing examining the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). During the hearing, Kennedy spoke at length about his goal of fighting chronic diseases. He stated that the United States spends more than other developed nations on health care but has worse health outcomes. Committee Democrats focused on Kennedy’s past statements on vaccines and previous pro-choice positions. Finance Committee Republicans were largely supportive of Kennedy. However, during questioning by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who chairs the HELP Committee, Kennedy faced scrutiny after struggling to answer questions about Medicare and Medicaid. Read Mehlman’s hearing summary here.
Chair Mike Crapo (R-ID) stated that the Senate Finance Committee expects to vote on Kennedy’s nomination next week, adding that he’s pushing for a Senate floor vote “as soon as possible after that.” The Finance Committee is responsible for advancing the nomination out of committee to a chamber-wide vote.
On Thursday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a courtesy confirmation hearing for Kennedy. During the hearing, Chair Cassidy (R-LA) and several other senators questioned Kennedy on his history of anti-vaccine activism. Ranking Member Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Hassan (D-NH) both questioned Kennedy about Medicaid cuts, to which Kennedy stated that the White House had made “no inclination” that they would get rid of people’s healthcare. Read Kennedy’s testimony here.
Capito to Chair Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Overseeing Health Funding
On Wednesday, Senate Appropriations Committee Leaders announced Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) will chair the Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee. Capito is a veteran of the committee, ascending to ranking member of the subcommittee in 2023 following the retirement of Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO). Previously, she chaired the Homeland Security, Financial Services, and Legislative Branch subcommittees. Capito stated she will work with committee leadership to advance priorities, including expanding Alzheimer's disease research, combating the drug epidemic, and advancing efforts to end pediatric cancers. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), the previous chair of the subcommittee, is now Ranking Member. Sens. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) and Mike Rounds (R-SD) were also added to the Labor-HHS subcommittee's roster. Read the press release here.
Notable Bills Introduced:
Rep. Murphy & Colleagues Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Preserve Medicare for Patients and Physicians
On Friday, Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC) introduced the Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act of 2025 along with Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), John Joyce (R-PA), Raul Ruiz (D-CA), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA), Kim Schrier (D-WA), Claudia Tenney (R-NY), Ami Bera (D-CA), Carol Miller (R-WV) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL). On January 1, 2025, a 2.83% Medicare reimbursement cut went into effect for physicians due to a rule finalized by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in November of 2024. The legislation would boost physician Medicare payments by 6.62% for the remainder of 2025 to eliminate the 2.83% cut and alleviate the estimated 3.6% increase in practice cost expenses for 2025. Read the press release here and the bill here.
Reps. LaHood, Dunn, DelBene, Schrier Introduce Legislation to Preserve Patient Access to Accountable Care
On Tuesday, Reps. Darin LaHood (IL-16) was joined by Representatives Neal Dunn (FL-02), Suzan DelBene (WA-01), and Kim Schrier (WA-08) in introducing the Preserving Patient Access to Accountable Care Act. This bipartisan legislation would extend the incentive payments for qualifying participants (QPs) in advanced alternative payment models (APMs) through payment year 2027 and freeze the qualifying thresholds increase. Read the press release here and the bill here.
Sen. Rick Scott Reintroduces Protect Our Seniors Act to Preserve Social Security and Medicare
On Wednesday, Senator Rick Scott (R-FL), Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, announced the reintroduction of his Protect Our Seniors Act to preserve and protect Social Security and Medicare. The bill would safeguard the benefits of Social Security and Medicare by establishing a rule to prevent cuts to Medicare and Social Security and ensuring that any savings to the Medicare program stay in the Medicare program. Read the press release here and the bill here.
Executive Branch:
Trump Issues, Then Rescinds Spending Freeze on Federal Assistance
On Monday, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced a temporary pause on all federal financial assistance, effective January 28, 2025, at 5:00 PM, in a memo circulated to all federal departments and agencies. It also required all agencies to conduct a review of every federal financial assistance program and related activity concerning their compliance with the President’s existing orders and policies. On Tuesday, a D.C. federal judge issued a temporary restraining order to block the freeze on federal spending temporarily. On Wednesday, OMB announced it had rescinded its freeze on federal financial assistance. Following the OMB rescinding of the order, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the budget office pulled the memo “to end any confusion on federal policy created by the court ruling and the dishonest media coverage.” But she said that the president’s more narrowly tailored executive orders “remain in full force and effect and effect and will be rigorously implemented by all agencies and departments.” “This action should effectively end the court case and allow the government to focus on enforcing the President’s orders on controlling federal spending. In the coming weeks and months, more executive action will continue to end the egregious waste of federal funding,” Leavitt said. Read the original memo here and the rescission memo here.
Medicaid Systems Back Up Running After Being Down Following Funding Freeze
Following the funding freeze on Monday, Medicaid payment systems experienced a widespread outage on Tuesday that created mass confusion. By Thursday, all states impacted had regained access. The White House addressed the outage on Tuesday afternoon, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posting on X (formerly Twitter), “The White House is aware of the Medicaid website portal outage,” adding that no payments were affected and that the site should be online “shortly.”
Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights to Prioritize Religious Rights Enforcement
On Monday, acting HHS Secretary Dorothy Fink announced the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights will evaluate guidance and regulations involving conscience and religious exercise. Under the President’s Executive Order on January 24 (Enforcing the Hyde Amendment) and guidance from the Office of Management and Budget, the Department will reevaluate all programs, regulations, and guidance to ensure Federal taxpayer dollars are not being used to pay for or promote elective abortion, consistent with the Hyde Amendment. Under the Biden administration, the Office for Civil Rights took steps to enforce abortion protections after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Read the press release here.
CIA States Lab Leak is The Most Likely Source of COVID-19 Outbreak
On Saturday, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) stated that the COVID-19 pandemic “more likely” originated from a lab leak than a natural source, shifting its stance after previously saying both scenarios were possible. “CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin based on the available body of reporting,” a spokesperson for the agency said Saturday in a statement. The statement added that the “CIA continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the Covid-19 pandemic remain plausible." The CIA’s new view aligns the agency with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Energy (DoE), which said the pandemic likely originated from a lab in Wuhan, China. Other agencies have assessed that the initial infection was most likely caused by natural exposure to an animal.
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