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Category: Administration

Congressional Leaders Ask Trump to Keep Collins

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Late Friday, four key Republican health care leaders sent a letter to President-elect Trump asking him to retain NIH’s Francis Collins. The letter was signed by the chairmen of the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittees from both chambers, Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO). It was also signed by Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI).

These crucial Members of Congress are the Republican leadership in health and NIH and include, the outgoing House and Energy Commerce chairman (Fred Upton), Senate HELP committee chairman (Lamar Alexander), and the two chairmen of the appropriations committees that oversee NIH: (Senator Roy Blunt and Congressman Tom Cole).

Carson for HUD

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President-elect Trump has announced his intention to nominate Dr. Ben Carson for the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). A former Republican presidential candidate, Carson is a retired neurosurgeon who was the director of the Johns Hopkins University’s department of pediatric neurosurgery. He received world-wide renown for separating twins who were conjoined at the head.

Carson has previously stated he was not interested in a cabinet post due to his lack of experience.

Foxx to be Chair of House Education and Workforce Cmte, Trump’s Ed Landing Team

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With approval of the full Republican conference, the House Republican Steering Committee has selected Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) as the chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce in the 115th Congress.  She grew up in Appalachia without power and running water and began working as a weaver at age 12 to help support her family. These experiences convinced her that it’s an individual’s hard work, and not federal programs, that lead to success.

As the 73-year-old GOP lawmaker and former community college president, Foxx has been a staunch critic of the Obama Administation’s Department of Education efforts. 

She is a strong supporter of school choice and supports the president-elect’s $20 billion school choice plan emphasizing vouchers. Specifically, she wants to examine the billions doled out annually under Title 1 — a Great Society program that boosts funding to schools catering to poor students. The money is now considered a possible funding source for Trump’s school choice plan. Other items on her agenda: 

  • reexamine the role of the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, which conservatives revile for its focus on issues such as campus sexual assault and bathroom access for transgender students;

  • reverse a Democratic Congress’ decision to have the Education Department, not banks, issue student loans; and 

  • reverse regulations targeting for-profit colleges.

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Mike Pence’s former general counsel has joined the landing team at the Education Department. Attorney Thomas Wheeler was named to the team Thursday. He served as general counsel for Pence during his time as Indiana governor, according to a 2013 press release from the Republican National Lawyers Association that announced him as a member of its board of governors. Wheeler also has extensive experience representing schools on legal issues, including civil rights-related cases, according to the web site for his law firm in Indianapolis, Frost Brown Todd, LLC.

Mattis for SECDEF

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President-elect Trump has named James Mattis to be the Secretary of Defense.

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon is largely credited with inspiring the Department of Defense’s operational renewable energy initiatives.

Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, who retired in 2013 from his post as head of U.S. Central Command, has been an outspoken critic of the Obama administration and the Iran nuclear deal since he retired in 2013 following a 41-year career in the Marines. Mattis led the Marines into Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War and the initial wave into Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and 2003.

It was during his time in Iraq that Mattis noticed that service members under his command were trying to move faster than fuel supplies could accommodate, requiring forces to slow down for resupply chains. The observation led Mattis to famously ask Congress, in a post-combat report, to “unleash” the military “from the tether of fuel.”

Mattis’ report prompted the Pentagon to take a closer look at its supply chain, with DOD ultimately finding that by 2009 more than 3,000 troops and civilian contractors had been killed or wounded protecting convoys, 80 percent of which were transporting truck fuel.

DOD began a number of efforts to reduce soldiers’ reliance on oil in combat, including the development of solar blankets to provide energy to Marines on foot patrol, and more energy-efficient generators that could power entire forward operating bases.

Those steps are likely to stay in place under Mattis’ leadership, and the use of renewables in the field has a clear tie to saving time and lives.

Cures Passes House

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Last night, the House approved, 392-26, the 21st Century Cures Act, amended by a Manager’s Amendment submitted by House Energy and Commerce Chair Fred Upton (R-MI). While the Manager’s Amendment modifies slightly the allocation of funding in the NIH Innovation Account on an annual basis, it maintains the overall level of funding in the Account at a total of $4.796 billion between FYs 2017 and 2026. For the Precision Medicine Initiative, the Amendment provides $1.455 billion between FYs 2017 and 2026; for BRAIN, $1.511 billion between FYs 2017 and 2026; for cancer research, $1.8 billion between FYs 2017 and 2023; and for clinical research to advance regenerative medicine using adult stem cells, the Amendment provides $30 million between FYs 2017 and 2020.

The overwhelming vote tally gained more Republican votes and registered the same level of Democratic support when compared to the vote on a previous 2015 bill version (HR 6).

The legislation now moves to the Senate for consideration next week.