A toast to bipartisanship

Last week, a bipartisan group of staffers met at Union Pub in Washington for happy hour drinks to celebrate the health care package that they negotiated as part of the HHS funding bill that Congress passed last month. It was the first bipartisan health care legislation to pass in more than 3 years.

Cheers to that. But now what?

With the health care package done, the decks are clear. But lawmakers failed at renewing the enhanced ACA premium subsidies, sending costs way up for millions, and there doesn’t seem to be much appetite for revisiting that issue. It’s also a midterm election year, which can frustrate bipartisan lawmaking.

President Trump said in an interview with Fox Business’s Larry Kudlow that he’s not interested in the budget reconciliation process that Republicans used to pass their tax bill last year.

“We’ve gotten everything passed that we need for four years,” Trump said.

That doesn’t mean lawmakers will choose to do nothing on health care. Trump continues to say he wants to do more on lowering drug prices. And he’s said repeatedly that he wants to give money directly to patients, which would require help from Congress.

MAHA

Inside the HHS shakeup

Although Trump said he’s not interested in health care legislation, he still has a health care agenda. And he’s shaking up leadership at the top of HHS to focus the department on politically popular aspects of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s MAHA agenda.

Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill and General Counsel Mike are leaving their jobs, Chelsea Cirruzzo reported Friday. Days earlier, four political appointees were elevated into more senior roles.

The administration plans to draw attention to its work on drug pricing and healthy eating. However, just last week, FDA’s Vinay Prasad overruled the agency’s reviewers by refusing to accept Moderna’s application for a new influenza vaccine, the WHO director-general called the planned U.S.-funded study of the hepatitis B vaccine in Guinea-Bissau “unethical,” and the worst measles outbreak in 30 years is only getting worse. So don’t expect vaccines to disappear from the headlines.

The administration rolled out its “Eat Real Food” campaign with an ad featuring retired boxer Mike Tyson at the Super Bowl. RFK Jr. gathered supporters at HHS headquarters to celebrate that campaign, and he said he’s planning additional events and regulations on food safety and nutrition.

food

Prying cheesy poofs from my cold, dead hands

That brings us to an article Sarah Todd wrote about RFK Jr.’s plan to take the first step toward overhauling ultra-processed foods.

The health secretary said on Sunday that he is going to act on a pending citizen petition, which is the process for the public to request the FDA to change, add, or repeal regulations. The petition in question is by former FDA Commissioner David Kessler, who was appointed to that role by President George H. W. Bush and also advised the Biden administration’s Covid response.

The petition would take action against refined carbohydrates. That category includes sweeteners like high-fructose corn syrup and the starches that are extracted from food, then processed into a puffy, crispy, melt-in-your-mouth substance that is the foundation for many packaged snacks and desserts, Sarah reports.

Read more about how that might work, what’s still not clear, and why such strange bedfellows are working together.

cdc

28 days

That’s how long the CDC has had a Senate-confirmed director during Trump’s administration. It took longer than that for the Senate to confirm Susan Monarez, then she was fired for not kowtowing to Kennedy over vaccination policy, Helen Branswell reports.

O’Neill’s departure is drawing fresh attention to the lack of a permanent leader atop the CDC. Trump hasn’t nominated a new director to replace Monarez, and a White House spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment. It’s looking like Monarez’s 28-day stretch may be the only time during the second Trump administration that the CDC has a confirmed director.

vaccines

Pediatricians vs. HHS

Daniel Payne wrote a fascinating article about how the American Academy of Pediatrics, the nation’s leading professional group for those doctors, finds itself leading the counterattack against HHS’ charge on vaccines.

“You’re seeing us sort of take that starring role, if you will, in the message, but that’s not what we want for the long term,” Susan Kressly, the immediate past president of the AAP, told Daniel. “What’s in the best interest of children and families across this country is that we are speaking with one voice with the policymakers.”

Read more about how AAP has reworked its strategies to meet the moment.

The health secretary

Tracking RFK Jr.’s accomplishments

It's officially been one year since Kennedy became the nation's health secretary. He has made numerous promises and set many goals since he created the MAHA movement and then took the helm of HHS. But how many of them has he actually accomplished? Isa Cueto has been tracking that exact question.

The latest update of our tracker shows Kennedy has made progress on some fronts, like changing the U.S. approach to nutrition, more closely scrutinizing the nation's supply of infant formula, and investing in addiction treatment. However, many other promises are unfulfilled, or have morphed into more humble pursuits over time.

On key issues such as agency transparency and vaccines, Kennedy has broken his vows to the public, including one that he would "do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages” Americans from vaccinating.

Check out the one-year report card, with accompanying details, here.

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