POLICY BRIEFINGS

Hart Health Strategies provides a comprehensive policy briefing on a weekly basis. This in-depth health policy briefing is sent out at the beginning of each week. The health policy briefing recaps the previous week and previews the week ahead. It alerts clients to upcoming congressional hearings, newly introduced bills, regulatory announcements, and implementation activity related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and other health laws.


THIS WEEK'S BRIEFING - JANUARY 3, 2011

Results of 2010 Election Shapes Agenda of 112th Congress


The final 63 seat Republican gain in the House of Representatives in the fall elections (resulting in 242 Republicans and 193 Democrats) gives the incoming Republican House majority a strong leg up in their expressed efforts to “replace and repeal” the PPACA.  Incoming House Speaker John Boehner has announced the following incoming chairmen-elect of the key health-related House committees:

  • Agriculture--Rep. Frank Lucas of Oklahoma;
  • Appropriations--Rep. Harold Rogers of Kentucky;
  • Armed Services--Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon of California;
  • Budget--Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin;
  • Education and the Workforce (renamed)--Rep. John Kline of Minnesota;
  • Energy and Commerce--Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan;
  • Oversight and Government Reform--Rep. Darrell Issa of California;
  • Rules--Rep. David Dreier of California;
  • Veterans’ Affairs--Rep. Jeff Miller of Florida;
  • Ways and Means--Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan.

Appendix I provides a detailed summary of the new House rules proposed by the incoming Republican majority.  Provisions targeting new spending will present significant hurdles to the adoption of new health related programs in the new congress. 

In the Senate contest in Alaska, Republican Joe Miller announced that he will not challenge the certification of Senator Lisa Murkowski’s write-in victory, thus bringing the final tally in the Senate to 47 Republicans, 51 Democrats and 2 Independents.  However, Mr. Miller said he will proceed to seek a favorable ruling in federal court to exclude misspellings of “Murkowski” as legitimate write-in votes.  Congress is slated to reconvene on January 5th, after which committee assignments will be ratified.



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