Policy Corner: December 6, 2019

CBITF Sets Date for Brain Injury Awareness Day 2020

The Congressional Brain Injury Task Force (CBITF) will hold Brain Injury Awareness Day March 4, 2020, in Washington, D.C. The day will consist of a fair, briefing, and reception. The Administration for Community Living (ACL) will hold its annual TBI stakeholder day March 3 and will host a lunch March 4 to coincide with the CBITF Awareness Day.

Appropriation Negotiators Conference on Spending Bills

With a funding expiration deadline looming, House and Senate legislators are working this weekend to negotiate the differences in the House and Senate FY 2020 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations as well as other spending bills. With regard to federal brain injury programs, the House bill included an additional $1 million for a total of $12.321 million for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ACL TBI Program. The program awards grants to Protection & Advocacy (P&A) systems and to states to improve service delivery. The Senate Appropriations Committee recommended level funding.

The House recommended level funding for the ACL Disability and Rehabilitation Research program, while the Senate Committee recommended an additional $3 million for that program as well as a $3 billion increase for the National Institutes of Health, bringing the biomedical research entity’s budget to $42.1 billion. The House also included an additional $2 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Injury Control Research Centers for a total of $11 million, an additional $1 million for the CDC elderly falls prevention program for a total of $3.05 million, and $25 million for firearm injury and mortality prevention research. While the House proposed an increase of roughly $50 million for the agency’s overall budget, the Senate limited a funding increase to $15 million. The House of Representatives passed 10 of the 12 appropriations bills in July, while the Senate failed to do so.

House Committees Issue Press Release on Drug Pricing Bill 

Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.) and Education and Labor Committee Chairman Bobby Scott (D-Va.) released a joint statement announcing the investments in Medicare and the search for new cures that will be included in the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act, H.R. 3, when it goes to the House floor for a vote next week. H.R. 3 will comprise transformative expansions of Medicare’s benefits to include dental, vision, and hearing for the first time in the history of the program. It will also include critical funding to assist innovation in the search for new cures and treatments as well as funding to combat the opioid crisis.

House Health Subcommittee to Hold Hearing on Universal Health Coverage

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health will hold a legislative hearing Dec. 10 at 10:30 a.m. in Room 2322 of the Rayburn House Office Building for purposes of discussing proposals to extend health care access. The hearing, “Proposals to Achieve Universal Health Care Coverage,” will hear the Medicare for All bill, introduced by Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), along with six other bills, including public option proposals.