House Panel Meets for Markup of 15 Health-Related Bills

WASHINGTON — The House Energy and Commerce Committee met Wednesday to markup 15 health-related bills, reviewing and reauthorizing programs dealing with everything from the future of telehealth to a registry for firefighters dealing with cancer to treatment services for sickle cell disease.

In her opening remarks before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said advancing the bills in a timely fashion is her top priority.

“That is our job as the people’s representatives,” she said, “to help improve the lives of those we serve.”

Thanking her colleagues on the panel, McMorris Rodgers said, “We’re doing the hard work necessary to review and reauthorize programs and deliver results to the American people.”

In addition to programs, the panel was also expected to reauthorize what the committee chair described as “key authorities” to help protect Americans from chemical, radiological, biological, nuclear and cyberattacks.

McMorris Rodgers went on to call for bipartisan support for the measures before the panel, noting that one high-profile bill among the 15 the committee was reviewing — the SUPPORT for the Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act — “includes a number of bipartisan wins.”

The SUPPORT Act requires states to have drug utilization review safety edits in place for opioid refills, monitor concurrent prescribing of opioids and other drugs, and monitor antipsychotic prescribing for children.

She then went on to enumerate the “wins,” which she said include providing heightened substance abuse care for people in the criminal justice system, expanding care for foster youth in need and lifting the Medicaid IMD exclusion.

Currently, the law prohibits states from using Medicaid to pay for care provided in “institutions for mental disease,” which are psychiatric hospitals or other residential treatment facilities that have more than 16 beds. 

McMorris Rodgers called bipartisan support for the bill “proof of what we can accomplish when we work together.”

The committee’s ranking member, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., began his remarks lamenting the fact that a week after the panel’s Health subcommittee marked up the bills, no progress had been made on a consensus reauthorization of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, a bill intended “to improve the nation’s public health and medical preparedness and response capabilities for emergencies, whether deliberate, accidental, or natural.”

And Pallone laid blame specifically on the committee’s Republican majority.

“This is not only disappointing, but also an abdication of our important responsibility to reauthorize this law to prepare for and respond to public health emergencies and threats,” the Democrat said.

“This is the first time in the history of this law that it is being brought to the full committee for a vote in a partisan fashion,” Pallone continued. 

“I believe that is dangerous considering we have just witnessed first-hand with COVID-19 how important pandemic response is. It should not be partisan, and we should be working together to protect the health and well-being of the American people,” he said.

“Fortunately, there is a comprehensive alternative that we should all support today. Every committee Democrat has introduced a serious and robust PAHPA reauthorization bill that applies the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and ensures we will be better prepared for future public health emergencies. … It represents the action that this committee should be taking today and provides better hope for the future.” 

Pallone also lashed out at his Republican colleagues for “using the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education Program to attack medical care for transgender youth.”

According to Pallone, by refusing to reauthorize the legislation in its existing form, committee Republicans were “inserting themselves into the very private decisions that should be left to doctors, patients and their parents. [And] they are also disrupting the training of pediatricians at a time where we are suffering a pediatric shortage.”

“Today, committee Republicans are openly rejecting the opportunity to pass a reauthorization of the CHGME program on a bipartisan basis and are instead including extreme and dangerous language to restrict care for transgender youth. I believe these actions are targeting transgender youth who are just trying to find their way. I think it’s discriminatory and beneath this committee,” Pallone said.

But if he came out swinging, Pallone also applauded the bipartisan support for the SUPPORT Act. 

“Tragically, the opioid epidemic continues to impact every community across the country. The package before us today will reauthorize critical programs included in the SUPPORT Act five years ago, as well as some new provisions to expand prevention, treatment and response efforts to the opioid epidemic,” Pallone said.

“Since the subcommittee markup last week, I am pleased we were able to reach a bipartisan agreement to include several important Medicaid policies in the SUPPORT Act reauthorization,” he continued. 

“An amendment we’ll be taking up later includes policies that will help connect justice-involved individuals with Medicaid while they await trial. It will also help ensure people who are incarcerated are connected to Medicaid upon their release,” Pallone said. “For those incarcerated individuals struggling with opioid use disorder, the time of their release can be particularly dangerous. This legislation is going to help them get the treatment and support that they need.

“We were also able to work to address many of my concerns with the two IMD provisions before us. The bill before us strikes a good balance. It will expand access to coverage, connect beneficiaries to treatment, and ensure that people are treated in the setting that is right for them, which for the vast majority of people will be a community-based setting,” he said.

The bills reviewed by the Energy and Commerce Committee during Wednesday’s markup session were:

H.R. 824, the Telehealth Benefit Expansion for Workers Act of 2023. Introduced by Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., would expand upon COVID-19 flexibility provisions offered by the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor and the Department of the Treasury by increasing the ability of employers to offer stand-alone coverage of telehealth-only services to employees. 

H.R. 3226, the Prematurity Research Expansion and Education for Mothers who deliver Infants Early Reauthorization Act of 2023. The bill, introduced by Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., would reauthorize the act for fiscal years 2024-2028. This reauthorization would include the renewal of research, education and intervention activities and programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Health Resources and Services Administration that focus on preventing preterm births and reducing infant mortality. The bill would also authorize a new study on the financial costs of premature births to society, among other things. 

H.R. 3838, the Preventing Maternal Deaths Reauthorization Act of 2023. Introduced by Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, would reauthorize federal support for states to address disparities in maternal health outcomes and preserve the health of mothers during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period for fiscal years 2024-2028. The bill would also require the CDC to work in consultation with the HRSA to disseminate best practices relating to the prevention of maternal mortality to hospitals and other health care providers.

H.R. 3843, the Action for Dental Health Act of 2023. The bill, introduced by Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., would reauthorize section 340G of the Public Health Service Act for fiscal years 2024-2028. This program provides support for the dental health workforce. 

H.R. 3884, the Sickle Cell Disease and Other Heritable Blood Disorders Research, Surveillance, Prevention and Treatment Act of 2023. The bill, introduced by Burgess, would reauthorize the act for fiscal years 2024-2028. This program provides support for research and treatment services for sickle cell disease and other heritable blood disorders.

H.R. 3821, the Firefighter Cancer Registry Reauthorization Act of 2023. The bill, introduced by Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., would reauthorize funding for the voluntary registry for firefighter cancer incidents under the CDC for fiscal years 2024-2028. 

H.R. 3391, the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act 2.0. Introduced by Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., would reauthorize funding for the National Institutes of Health’s Gabriella Miller Kids First Pediatric Research Program. The bill would also require coordinating federal efforts related to pediatric cancer research, as well as a report detailing current federally funded programs and initiatives and the advancements made.

H.R. 3836, the Medicaid Primary Care Improvement Act. The bill, introduced by Reps. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, and Kim Schrier, D-Wash., would clarify that existing Medicaid law does not prohibit the ability of state Medicaid programs to utilize direct primary care as a means to provide primary care services to Medicaid beneficiaries. The bill would also task CMS with writing a report to Congress to the extent to which such a contracting arrangement already exists in Medicaid.

H.R. 4531, the Support for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act. The bill, introduced by Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., would reauthorize key parts of the SUPPORT Act. This includes public health programs focused on prevention, treatment and recovery for patients with substance use disorder, and a permanent extension of Medicaid’s required coverage of medication-assisted treatments. 

H.R. 4529, the Public Health Guidance Transparency and Accountability Act of 2023. The bill, introduced by McMorris Rodgers, would establish public participation requirements prior to finalization or implementation of guidance developed, issued and disseminated by the CDC. The bill would also clarify CDC guidance is nonbinding and does not have the force or effect of the law.

H.R. 4381, the Public Health Emergency Congressional Review Act. The bill, introduced by Reps. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., and Guthrie, would establish a congressional review process, similar to that established under the National Emergency Act, in which, not later than six months after a declared Public Health Emergency, Congress may meet and vote on whether to terminate the PHE. 

H.R. 3813, the CDC Leadership Accountability Act of 2023. The bill, introduced by Guthrie, would require Senate confirmation of any director of the CDC appointed on or after June 1, 2023.

H.R. 4421, the Preparing for All Hazards and Pathogens Reauthorization Act. The bill, introduced by Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., would reauthorize current programs to support public health security and all-hazards response, including strategic national stockpile, biomedical advanced research and development authority and public health emergency medical countermeasures enterprise. The bill also includes provisions aimed at enhancing transparency across the agencies, supporting targeted research into certain medical countermeasures and streamlining emergency response authorities, among others.

H.R. 4420, the Preparedness and Response Reauthorization Act. The bill, introduced by Hudson, would reauthorize certain programs related to the CDC, and includes provisions aimed at efforts to support the distribution of medical countermeasures, control of biological agents and mosquito-borne diseases and epidemiological monitoring, among others.

H.R. 3887, the Children’s Hospital GME Support Reauthorization Act. The bill, introduced by Crenshaw, would reauthorize payments to children’s hospitals that operate Graduate Medical Education programs for fiscal years 2024-2028. The legislation also includes a prohibition on payments to children’s hospitals that furnish specified procedures or drugs for minors.

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