Last week several key appointments to the cabinet made progress toward Senate confirmation. It appears that both Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) for the Department of Health and Human Services and Congressmen Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) for the Office of Management and Budget are on schedule for eventual approval by the full Senate however getting there has
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing on the Affordable Care Act last Wednesday. The focus of the hearing was titled, “Rescuing Americans from the Failed Health Care Law and Advancing Patient-Centered Solutions." It featured the testimony of long-time universal health care reform opponents, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WS) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) sketched out a 200-day agenda for Republican members of the House and Senate. The schedule was laid out at a closed-door retreat for Republicans held in Philadelphia from Wednesday night through Friday. Although the sessions were not public, details were being widely reported. The
The Affordable Care Act was the hot topic at the Republicans retreat this past week. And while Senate and House Republicans were looking for more specificity and clarity from the Administration they didn't get it when the President Trump spoke to them last Thursday. Instead there were reports through the Washington Post and other publications
Medicaid came up during the Senate Finance Committee hearing for the appointment of Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services. In the questioning, he defended the proposals that have been offered to convert Medicaid into a block grant but he never committed to supporting one. When pressed by
On Tuesday, Congressman Tom Price, the HHS-Designate went before the Senate Finance Committee for his second confirmation hearing and during a question and answer period criticized SSBG. During the hearing Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) was attempting to get a response on whether he would support a block grant of Medicaid (which she was not able
Last week President Trump began to address some of his immigration priorities through several executive orders. So far he has not taken action on DACA or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. The executive orders can only go so far before Congress’s approval is needed to change laws but one of the powers the President
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy released a new poll that shows three-quarters of adults (including 66% of Republicans and 84% of Democrats) support Title X, the federal program that provides free or low-cost birth control to those making $30,000 a year or less. The poll also shows that 85% of adults
A report in the Capitol Hill newspaper the Hill, describing dramatic cuts within domestic spending programs this year spread throughout the human services community last Thursday. The article, Trump Team Prepares Dramatic Cuts describes meetings between the transition team and career staff to seek significant cuts during the current fiscal year, FY 2017. It is
With some proposing that we defund programs that have not been reauthorized, the Congressional Budget Office issues regular annual reports of how many programs have not been reauthorized. Congress frequently fails to meet the window to reauthorize programs. An occurrence that seems more frequent in recent congresses. In January 2016, the CBO released, Unauthorized Appropriations