A Washington Post/“60 Minutes” investigation, which aired this weekend, examined Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA) efforts to guide legislation that weakened the Drug Enforcement Administration’s ability to go after drug distributors, even as opioid-related deaths continue to rise.
Marino was the Administration’s nominee for the position of Drug Czar. He has withdrawn his name from consideration.
President Trump has also promised a major announcement about opioids next week.
The full Senate is expected to take up this week its FY2018 budget resolution. The House cleared its version earlier this month.
While the budget resolution usually lays out the budget parameters for a given year, the primary goal of the FY2018 budget resolution is to set up for procedures that would allow Republicans to pass a tax reform package with the minimum number of votes. The House adopted resolution would also allow for a similar process.
While Republicans are united in their push for a big tax package, there is disagreement on several issues associated with such a measure, including whether a tax-cut bill should increase the debt. Read more here and here.
Here’s a selection of articles we’re reading this week.
Meet the Trump Whisperer – Few people are closer to Trump than Thomas J. Barrack Jr., his friend for three decades. Barrack helped rescue Trump’s real estate empire years ago. He was the top fundraiser for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. He turned down a Cabinet offer, preferring to be an outside adviser, although his name is still mentioned as a potential White House chief of staff should Trump decide to choose a new one. Above all, Barrack has remained unfailingly loyal to Trump, who he sees as a shrewd politician. Read the full profile on the Washington Post.
Ryan Threatens Work During Christmas – Nothing seems to push lawmakers to get their jobs done and pass legislation more than the threat of having to be in Washington over the holidays. Read more from Roll Call.
The New, Improved IPEDS – A decade in the making, upgrade of the federal government’s main higher ed database enables tracking part-time and adult students and gauging graduation rates for Pell Grant recipients. Limits remain, though. Read more from Inside Higher Ed.
Not Just About Free Speech – It’s a dizzying battleground: civil libertarians resist demands that even hateful speech be shut down as students protest controversial speakers and right-wing critics dismiss young liberals as delicate “snowflakes.” … But the push and pull isn’t just about speech. Many liberal students believe a tolerance for hostile rhetoric is an indicator of bigger injustices, both on campuses and in society, that need to be addressed. Read more from Time.
Where’s Zinke? – At the Interior Department’s headquarters in downtown Washington, Secretary Ryan Zinke has revived an arcane military ritual that no one can remember ever happening in the federal government. A security staffer takes the elevator to the seventh floor, climbs the stairs to the roof and hoists a special secretarial flag whenever Zinke enters the building. When the secretary goes home for the day or travels, the flag comes down. Read more from the Washington Post.
Late Thursday, President Trump announced the Administration will no longer pay subsidies to health insurance companies that help pay out-of-pocket costs of low-income people. These plans were disclosed hours after the President issued an executive action yesterday to change the nation’s insurance system, including sales of cheaper policies with fewer benefits and fewer protections for consumers.
The Department of Health and Human Services said it will immediately end these monthly payments, a move that could push premiums as much as 15 to 20 percent higher and prompt more insurers to withdraw from the marketplaces altogether. It would cut approximately $7 billion in annual payments, which reimburse insurers for discounting deductibles and co-payments for the lowest-income enrollees, is grounds for insurers to back out of their federal contracts to even sell plans next year. Already, the Administration had been making the payments on a month-to-month basis, prompting complaints by insurers about a lack of certainty as they tried to plan ahead for 2018 and beyond.
The marketplaces are set to open for 2018 enrollment in two-and-a-half weeks and insurers are finalizing their offerings for 2018 now.
The Administration’s ability to actually make these payments, known as cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) was has already been in question due to a lawsuit filed by House Republicans filed back in 2014 against the Obama Administration.
In the suit, Republicans charged the Administration does not have the authority to make the CSR payments because Congress needed to appropriate the funding, and late last year, a federal judge sided with House Republicans. The ruling stated that the CSRs funding needs to be disbursed by Congress. Technically, this means that the Trump administration would have had to challenge that ruling in order to keep making the payments indefinitely.
Which is what Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN.) and Patty Murray (D-WA) had been in talks to do for two months. They have been trying to work out a deal to appropriating the funding for 2018 and possibly 2019 to ensure stabilization in the marketplaces, but negotiations have been hampered over disagreements about how much state flexibility to inject into such a bargain. Conservative Republicans have been unwilling to pay CSRs without rolling back ACA regulations, and Democrats will not rollback any of the law’s consumer protections.
At a White House ceremony yesterday, Kirstjen Nielsen was introduced by President Trump as his nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The previous secretary, John Kelly, is now the White House Chief of Staff. Elaine Duke is currently serving as the Acting Secretary of DHS.
Nielsen is currently the principal deputy chief of staff under Kelly and worked for him as well when he ran DHS.
Read more about the nomination here and here.