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Inside Health Policy
House Energy & Commerce Republicans held a hearing Wednesday (July 16) to discuss a series of bills aimed at strengthening rural health care -- an effort that committee Democrats told Inside Health Policy is nothing more than damage control amid mounting backlash over the GOP’s near $1 trillion Medicaid cut in their recently passed reconciliation package.
Substack, "Amanda's Mild Takes"
While Kristi Noem and Pete Hegseth’s gross incompetence take up a lot of air time, RFK Jr. is actually the cabinet appointment I worry the most about. As the head of Health and Human Services, he oversees the CDC, FDA, and NIH, among other departments. He’s gutting medical research and, as an outspoken anti-vax grifter, firing experienced vaccine researchers. So I reached out to Congresswoman Kim Schrier, an experienced pediatrician and representative of the Washington 8th, to ask her your (and my!) questions about what’s going on. We discussed:
WASHINGTON, D.C. –Representatives Kim Schrier, M.D. (WA-08) and John Joyce, M.D. (PA-13) introduced the Access to Claims Data Act – a bipartisan bill that will strengthen medical research and improve overall patient care by providing physician researchers with access to Medicare claims data.
This week, Congresswoman Kim Schrier joined community leaders and staff at Food Lifeline–an organization that supplies Washington food banks–to discuss how the recent passage of Republicans’ Big Ugly Bill is endangering access to food by dramatically cutting nutrition assistance programs.
KGW8
MALTBY, Wash. — As President Donald Trump celebrates the passage of his sweeping “Big Beautiful Bill,” some Washington leaders are warning of serious consequences for the state’s most vulnerable residents.
Now signed into law, the president’s budget includes $186 billion in cuts to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over the next decade — reductions that some argue will hit rural communities especially hard.
My Northwest
The Trump administration’s new vaccine advisers endorsed this fall’s flu vaccines late last week, but only those that don’t contain the ingredient thimerosal, which has been falsely linked to autism, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The panel is also recommending that infants receive a shot to protect them against the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
NOLA
WASHINGTON — Actions by a vaccine advisory panel hand-picked by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are putting Louisiana U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy’s reputation on Capitol Hill in a precarious position.
For 30 years, Republican Cassidy, once a physician at Baton Rouge’s charity hospital, advocated the safety and efficacy of vaccines to treat disease and save lives. During that same time, Kennedy raised doubts about these inoculations.
Center for American Progress
President Donald Trump’s appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a decades-long vaccine skeptic, as secretary of health and human services (HHS) is already undermining public trust in highly safe and effective vaccines.
AP
ATLANTA (AP) — The Trump administration’s new vaccine advisers on Thursday endorsed this fall’s flu vaccinations for just about every American — but only if they use certain shots free of an ingredient antivaccine groups have falsely tied to autism.
Thimerosal is a preservative that has long been used in certain vaccines to prevent bacterial contamination. Learn more about its history and why the ingredient is being debated again.
Democracy Now
The chair of the Senate health committee has called on a panel of vaccine advisers to delay plans to meet this week, after accusing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of stacking the panel with unqualified members and vocal vaccine critics. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — a medical doctor who spent decades promoting vaccinations for children — wrote that the group Kennedy appointed lacks experience studying microbiology, epidemiology, or immunology. Cassidy infamously voted to confirm RFK Jr.