They did it – really
New Speaker, but still unknowns
Who is Mike Johnson?
The Rundown
- The House elects new speaker
- Focus turns back to government funding as the mid-November deadline approaches
- HELP Committee advances NIH Director nominee
- The latest from our desks
- Join the Duke Health Advocacy Network!
Federal Updates
Magical (217) Mike? House elects new Speaker
We have a new speaker! Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) was unanimously elected by House Republicans during a floor vote on Wednesday. The last three weeks included the ousting of the previous speaker, four speaker designees (even two in just one day!), multiple unsuccessful votes on the House floor, numerous closed sessions and grievance meetings, and flirting with working with Democrats to elect a temporary speaker.
If you haven’t already Googled him yet, and there are a bunch of people in and out of Washington who have, Speaker Johnson is a fourth-term member of the House first elected in 2016, the House Republican Conference vice chair, and former chair of the Republican Study Committee. Prior to his election as speaker, he held seats on the House Judiciary and Armed Services Committees. He previously worked as a college professor, conservative talk radio host and columnist, and an attorney and spokesperson for several religious groups.
Although the vote was unanimous by his Republican colleagues, Speaker Johnson has a lot of work ahead of him. The process to elect a new speaker has left the House Republican Conference splintered and with a lot of bad feelings among its members. Running the House with such a slim majority is tough even when the party is united, not to mention the to-do list that has been left waiting in the wings as this process played out.
(Some) Progress on Appropriations
Now that Speaker Mike Johnson has the gavel, the question turns to what he plans to do with it. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have much time to decide, as there are only 21 days until the current continuing resolution (CR) keeping the federal government expires. Congress will almost certainly have to pass another stopgap spending patch to stave off a shutdown in a little more than three weeks.
Prior to his election as speaker, Johnson announced a plan to pass another CR to keep the government running through either mid-January or mid-April, while also having the House begin passing the remaining FY 2024 appropriations bills in the coming weeks. But will the CR be a “clean” CR like the current one, focused only on government funding? Or will House conservatives force through a CR that includes policy items on their wishlist and/or steep cuts to current government funding but is sure to be blocked by Democrats in the House and Senate? It is too soon to tell, but Johnson did vote against the current “clean” CR just last month.
With most of Washington’s attention focused on the chaos in the House of Representatives, you’d be forgiven if you had forgotten about the upper chamber. Senate leaders have been quietly working on a deal to move forward with their versions of the FY 2024 appropriations bills.
Late Tuesday, Senate leaders reached an agreement to begin debate on their three-bill spending package after weeks of gridlock over potential amendments. The three FY 2024 bills in the package are considered some of the least controversial, funding the Departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, and Transportation. Once these bills are behind them, Senate Appropriations leaders will next try to pass the remaining nine spending bills in similar packages.
Will it matter to the House? We now have a Speaker but also plenty of the same questions that plagued the future of FY 2024 funding three weeks ago.
Our team will continue to advocate for Duke Health funding priorities as the process continues.
HELP Committee approves NIH Director nominee
As a follow up to our story last week, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee voted 15-6 on Wednesday to advance the nomination of Dr. Monica Bertagnolli to be the next director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Notably opposing her nomination was HELP Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who stated that “Dr. Monica Bertagnolli is an intelligent and caring person but has not convinced me that she is prepared to take on the greed and power of the drug companies and health care industry and fight for the transformative changes the NIH needs at this critical moment.” Ranking Member Bill Cassidy (R-LA) voted to support her nomination. His statement can be viewed here. Dr. Bertagnolli’s final confirmation vote now awaits action by the full Senate.
From our desk(s): Duke Health GR this week
This week our office coordinated outreach between the Director of the Duke Global Health Institute and Congressional members in support of reauthorization of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Our office also helped coordinate Duke-wide feedback to Senator Bill Cassidy’s request for information on NIH reform.
Members of our team joined a national coalition meeting with the office of Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-CA) to discuss opportunities for governance and development of artificial intelligence in healthcare.
We joined the Duke School of Medicine’s Advocacy in Clinical Leadership Track (ACLT) cohort to introduce the Duke Health Government Relations office and to learn from the participating residents about their interest in policy and advocacy. Our team will help guide this group’s experience as they prepare to visit Washington, D.C. and meet with federal policymakers next spring.
Join the Duke Health Advocacy Network!
Looking for more opportunities to connect with fellow advocates and professionals interested in public policy across the health system? Join the Duke Health Advocacy Teams Channel!
Managed and moderated by Duke Health Government Relations and Duke State Relations, the purpose of the platform is for you to connect with your colleagues throughout the health system who are engaged and/or interested in public policy advocacy. We hope the channel will be used as a space for sharing ideas, collaboration, and engaging with the government relations teams on the issues most important to your work.
We encourage you to explore the channel, as we will post relevant news items, policy updates, questions, advocacy resources, and opportunities for engagement. As importantly, this is your space to do the same and to help grow the community.
Click to Join
(Note: This is only open to Duke Health employees. By joining this teams channel, you acknowledge that the platform and your participation are intended for information sharing and connections/relationship building and is not an inducement by Duke Health Government Relations and Duke State Relations, or the channel’s participants, to act as an unauthorized advocacy and/or lobbying representative of Duke Health or Duke University).