They're baaaack

Critical health care policies hang in the balance as Congress returns from recess and begins a fight over government funding.

The negotiations will be messy. There are glimmers of hope for bipartisan agreement, but the Trump administration continues to provoke Congress by not spending money lawmakers have appropriated, which the Government Accountability Office said is unconstitutional.

Democrats find it hard to negotiate spending deals that Republicans and the administration can pick apart after the fact. But they have even less control without an appropriations law. Also, Democrats, and even some Republicans, want to at least partially extend expiring subsidies that make ACA marketplace plans affordable for millions of middle-income Americans.

Meanwhile, healthcare industry giants are throwing their weight behind a lobbying push to preserve those enhanced ACA premiums subsidies, Daniel Payne reports.

Read more for the political dynamics that are complicating predictions of how it'll pan out.

PUBLIC HEALTH

Tumult at the CDC and beyond

STAT's rockstar team of reporters did excellent work covering the chaos at CDC. It was a difficult story to follow in real time. It wasn't clear at first whether the CDC director was actually fired, never mind why, and the number of people who left in protest kept climbing. Yesterday, Trump weighed in on matters, but in a way that suggested factions are trying to win his favor behind the scenes.

The recap: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired CDC director Susan Monarez less than a month after the Senate confirmed her — she was the first Senate-confirmed CDC director, and congressional involvement was supposed to insulate the CDC from political influence.

At least three high-ranking agency officials quit in solidarity with Monarez. Kennedy's deputy Jim O'Neill will become acting CDC director.

The juicy details:

Daniel describes the scene in Kennedy's Washington office where he summoned Monarez to demand her resignation for not rubber stamping his plans to limit access to vaccines.

Chelsea Cirruzzo and Isabella Cueto provide sharp political analysis of how this latest episode shows that Kennedy is unstoppable.

Elizabeth Cooney explains what the loss of talent and trust means to public health.

In an opinion piece, former White House Covid-19 response coordinator Ashish K. Jha writes about why this marks a dark moment in public health.

maha

MAHA's first birthday

As MAHA turns 1, Isa spoke to nearly two dozen people to take stock of the movement. MAHA is still fired up, but it's struggling to stick together.

Kennedy has not met many of his goals, including better addiction recovery services and more publicly accessible HHS data. He has yet to outline a clear plan for reducing chronic disease beyond stoking public outrage and launching awareness campaigns.

I love this description by Isa: One year in, much of the movement still centers on spinning a positive narrative around itself, shutting down criticism and discord, and persuading more people to claim the MAHA label. Read more.

nih grants

HHS ends another supposed DEI program

HHS used to fund a program that supports students from marginalized backgrounds in the biomedical sciences. Now it doesn't, Veronica Paulus reports..

The program funded undergraduates' lab salaries and provided mentorships from senior investigators.

Kennedy ended the program because it didn't comply with the Trump administration's executive orders that prevent federal agencies from supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion-related activities. Experts say the termination could close off scientific careers to students who, without the program, don't have access to research opportunities.

addiction

Probing methadone clinics

A top Democrat is investigating the business practices and treatment of patients at major for-profit methadone clinics, Lev Facher reports.

Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) is demanding information about revenue, patient volumes, and employee numbers from three major chains: BayMark, New Season, and Acadia.

Hassan's letters repeatedly cite Lev's investigative series "The War on Recovery." Read more.

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What we're reading

Opinion: We surveyed hundreds of biomedical researchers about the instability in federal funding. Here's what they said, STAT
HHS moves to strip thousands of federal health workers of union rights, AP
FDA says it will publish reports of adverse events tied to drugs on daily basis, STAT
CVS and Walgreens Clamp Down on Covid Vaccines in Many States, The New York Times