Policy Updates: Hill Happenings and Administration Activities
Hill Happenings
FY2025 Appropriations
Republican appropriators are moving forward with dueling proposals to advance the fiscal year 2025 (FY2025) spending bill. On February 21, the Senate floor advanced a budget resolution through a vote-a-rama that tees up the budget reconciliation process, enabling Congress to bypass the Senate filibuster and pass a spending bill on party lines. However, an identical resolution must be passed in the Hose to unlock the budget reconciliation process. On February 13, the House advanced its own version of the budget resolution which aims to advance more of President Trump’s policy priorities in FY2025 than those included in the Senate version. The Republican caucus has been split on whether to leverage the budget reconciliation process for both FY2025 and FY2026 to advance President Trump’s priorities through two bills or to pass “one big, beautiful bill.”
Lawmakers have until March 14 to advance a FY2025 spending bill or a pass a stopgap funding measure to avert a government shutdown. Due to the controversial spending cuts proposed by Republicans and disagreements on how to advance the FY2025 spending bill through budget reconciliation, appropriators may have to resort to a full-year continuing resolution for FY2025.
NASTAD will continue to monitor the congressional appropriations process and advocate for the highest possible funding for HIV, hepatitis, and drug user health programs.
Administration Activities
HHS Implements New Guidance to Align Agency Programming with Executive Order on Gender
On February 19, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it released new guidance that aligns HHS policy with Executive Order 14168, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” The guidance implements the Trump Administration’s interpretation of sex for agency-wide programs, which only recognizes two sexes—male and female—and asserts that sex is unchangeable. Additionally, the HHS Office on Women’s Health updated its website on February 18 to detail the Administration’s efforts to remove gender diversity and inclusion from its health agencies’ programming.
Trump Administration to Continue Defending ACA in Braidwood Case, Asserts New Scope of Power for HHS Secretary
On February 18, the Department of Justice filed a brief that continues the federal government’s role in defending the Affordable Care Act’s preventive services mandate before a challenge at the Supreme Court. The case, Kennedy v. Braidwood Management, Inc., challenges the federal requirement that health plans cover preventive services without cost-sharing for consumers, putting at risk affordable preventive care for millions of Americans, including PrEP and HIV and STI testing. However, unlike the Biden Administration’s defense of the law, the Trump Administration is arguing that the HHS Secretary has the authority to add and remove members of the US Preventive Services Taskforce (USPSTF) and direct its members to study certain interventions at the Secretary’s discretion.
Resources
“In April 2024, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health identified three cases of hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection among people experiencing homelessness at the same time as a sharp increase in HAV concentrations at the wastewater plant that services the area where the patients lived.”
Job Postings
Executive Director of Programs – New York City, NY
The New York City Health Department is seeking an Executive Director of Programs to join its Bureau of Hepatitis, HIV, and STIs (BHHS). The Executive Director of Programs will provide day-to-day oversight and operational support to BHHS’s HIV Care and Treatment Program, HIV Epidemiology Program, HIV Prevention Program, STI Program, and Viral Hepatitis Program, which comprise the majority of the bureau’s staff. The Executive Director of Programs will report to BHHS’s Assistant Commissioner and work alongside the Assistant Commissioner and BHHS leadership to ensure these Programs are supported to function optimally and collaboratively, and that BHHS is well-positioned to implement its strategic priorities and achieve its mission to improve the lives of New Yorkers by ending transmission, illness, stigma, and inequities related to viral hepatitis, HIV, and STIs. For more information or to apply for the position, visit the job posting on NYC Jobs, here.
Communicable Disease Epidemiologist – Cheyenne, Wyoming
This position will serve as the Communicable Disease AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) Coordinator, Wyoming TB Controller, and Disease Intervention Specialist (DIS) for the Communicable Disease (CD) Treatment Program. Assist in outbreak response to ensure the safety of Wyoming residents; by interviewing cases for exposure information, updating news outlets on the progress of outbreak control, analyzing exposure data utilizing epidemiological and statistical methods.
News Bulletin
First CDC vaccine meeting under Trump administration is postponed
“The Trump administration is delaying an upcoming public meeting of an independent panel of experts who make recommendations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines. The meeting was slated to be the first gathering of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices under Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose department includes the CDC. Doctors and public health leaders are closely watching the fate of the vaccine committee, which consists of up to 19 voting members, under Secretary Kennedy because it's instrumental to CDC's vaccine policymaking.”
Mass firings continue across nation’s health agencies
“The Trump administration official defended the decision-making process behind the layoffs, saying DOGE had tasked an HHS employee with speaking with leaders across the department to determine whether or not each employee eligible to be fired contributed “to the overall function of the agency.” The official declined to name the HHS employee. Yet Trump officials’ description of a methodical process did not square with the situation within the department, the people with knowledge said, which they characterized as mass confusion and disorder in the days leading up to the layoffs.”
Map shows drug overdose death trends by state as overall fatalities dip in 2023, CDC says
“New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics shows which U.S. states saw the greatest decrease in overdose deaths between 2022 and 2023. During that time, drug overdose deaths decreased by 4% nationwide, marking the first time overdose deaths declined since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The trend continued into 2024, with overdose deaths falling 17% between July 2023 and July 2024, CBS News previously reported.”