News from the Hill: October 25, 2024

With Congress out until November 12^th, legislators are focused on campaigning ahead of the November 5^th elections. Medical research, higher education, and health workforce policy items have not been featured heavily by the campaigns. Prior debates related to basic levels of care and access have given way to debates over reproductive rights and out-of-pocket costs. An emerging topic on Capitol Hill with a political tinge has been redundancy and inefficiency in the federal medical research and public health agencies. The House Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill highlights a proposed reorganization of NIH and the elimination of other agencies and programs. More recently, House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans published a report on the COVID-19 response that largely accused NIH and CDC of misusing public funds to overstate the seriousness of the pandemic and ultimately undermine confidence in public health agencies.

The pending elections have also caught the attention of former agency officials with an interest in overarching health policy priorities. Former Trump-era FDA Commissioner, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, recently published an article in JAMA Forum titled, “Is it Time to Refocus the Role of CDC”, which picks up many of the aforementioned political themes about redundancy in public health. Meanwhile, Former Biden-era Acting FDA Commissioner, Dr. Janet Woodcock, traveled to Capitol Hill to call for a new approach to treatment development, review, and approval for rare diseases.

A comprehensive overview of current election races, including the presidential race, and Senate and House races that will determine the balance of power in the next Congress can be found here.

A summary of the healthcare policy positions of party platforms and various candidates can be found here.

By: Dane Christiansen, Washington Representative