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ARN Health Policy Digest - July 2024

Rehab Nursing Specialty

We are pleased to present the July issue of the ARN Health Policy Digest. This member benefit provides updates on health policy and legislative and regulatory developments that may be of interest to rehabilitation nurses.

Updates on FY 2025 Appropriations

On July 10, the House Appropriations Committee approved the FY 2025 Labor, Health and Human Services (Labor-HHS) spending bill, which includes 7 percent or $8.5 billion decrease in funding for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from FY 2024 funding levels. Specifically, the bill would significantly reduce funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), flat fund and radically restructure the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and cut the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Administration for Community Living (ACL).

The House's appropriations bills have drawn sharp criticism from Democrats, particularly House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) who continues to call on the majority to allocate at least $786 billion to non-defense programs and parity between increases in defense and non-defense spending. While House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-OK) aims to pass all 12 appropriations bills through the committee before the August recess, he has stated multiple times that he views these bills and their funding levels as a starting point for negotiations with the Senate. It is unclear how this bill will fare on the House floor.

In the Senate, appropriators began their first FY 2025 markup session last week and the committee approved 302(b) allocation levels for all twelve appropriations bills along party lines. Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) announced that the next markup session is scheduled for the week of July 22 but we do not yet know when Labor-HHS will be considered. 

E&C NIH Reform Proposal

House Energy and Commerce (E&C) Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) unveiled a framework that lays out recommendations for reforming the NIH. This partisan framework was developed largely in response to Republicans' concerns about NIH's response to COVID-19. The framework is available here, but some concerning highlights include:

  • Collapsing the 27 NIH institutes and centers into 15;
  • Limiting each investigator to three concurrent grants or awards; and
  • Prohibiting institute and center directors for serving longer than two five-year terms.

Since this framework was released, the House FY 2025 Labor-HHS appropriations bill provides funding for the 15 institutes and centers outlined in the framework. The House Appropriations Committee is essentially authorizing these changes without a thorough review by the E&C Committee, which is the authorizing committee. ARN will monitor opportunities to engage on these issues. Chair Rodgers is accepting comments on the framework through August 16. 

ARN Thanks Congress for Recognizing National Nurses Week

ARN, as a member of the Nursing Community Coalition (NCC), signed onto a letter thanking the leadership of the House and Senate Nursing Caucuses, along with 27 bipartisan members in the House and Senate, for introducing S.Res.676 and H.Res.1208 - a resolution supporting the goals and ideals of National Nurses Week, to be observed from May 6 through May 12, 2024. These bipartisan resolutions underscore the indispensable care that nurses provide to patients across the country.

Comments Submitted on the Federal Agenda on Disability Equity

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) published a request for information (RFI) on the development of the Federal Evidence Agenda on Disability Equity. Specifically, the RFI asks for input in three areas: describing disparities, information data collection and public access, and privacy, security, and civil rights. The Disability and Rehabilitation Research Coalition (DRRC), of which ARN is a member, submitted comments on July 15. The comments commended federal efforts to invest in disability research, while emphasizing the need for enhanced and updated disability data collection. Additionally, the comments highlighted the need for in-depth research on rehabilitation therapies and addressing disparities in access to rehabilitation services for all individuals with disabilities.

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