Overnight Healthcare: Senate GOP sticks with defunding Planned Parenthood

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday dispelled speculation that Republicans might drop a provision to defund Planned Parenthood from an ObamaCare repeal package.

Senate Republican leaders initially wanted to vote on the ObamaCare repeal bill this week, but they’ve had trouble rounding up enough votes in part because moderates have balked at the Planned Parenthood language.

McConnell, however, stood firm Tuesday and vowed it would not be dropped to make the bill more enticing for Sens. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). He insisted to reporters the repeal package “will contain a defund of Planned Parenthood,” and that it’ll move “after Thanksgiving.”

{mosads}Senate GOP sources say the package, which will move under special budgetary protections that allow it to pass with a simple-majority vote, still does not have enough support.

As many as eight Republican senators are threatening to vote “no” either because of the Planned Parenthood language or because of concern it does not go far enough to repeal the landmark healthcare reform law.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters Tuesday that leaders have been in talks with the parliamentarian about ways to tweak the reconciliation bill to follow the rules of the Senate.

“I think we’re confident that we’re able to get there, and then it’s just a question of 51 votes there,” he said. “We’re feeling, hopefully, optimistic that our members are going to be there to give us the 51 votes.” Read more here. 

CADILLAC TAX HUDDLE WITH OBAMA? A bipartisan group of lawmakers is requesting a face-to-face meeting with President Obama to discuss repealing ObamaCare’s “Cadillac Tax.”

Sens. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Reps. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) and Frank Guinta (R-N.H.) wrote to President Obama on Tuesday requesting a meeting “as soon as possible.”

“Finding a path forward on the repeal of this provision is a bipartisan and bicameral end-of-year priority for each of us and a large number of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle,” the lawmakers write. “As we continue to negotiate the repeal of this tax in pending, must-pass legislative packages in Congress, we respectfully request a meeting with you to discuss a plan to eliminate this tax.”

The efforts come two weeks after The Hill reported that the top two Democrats in Congress have been privately making the case to Obama to scrap the tax. Read more here.

SANDERS, WARREN SPAR WITH FDA NOMINEE: Dr. Robert Califf, the nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), defended himself against a chorus of Democratic criticism over his ties to the pharmaceutical industry.  

“I think the American public completely depends on having confidence that the FDA is independent,” he said before the Senate health committee on Tuesday.

Califf, a cardiologist who joined the FDA in February, has come under fire for his ties to pharmaceutical giants, including $100,000 worth of consulting work in 2014.

The criticisms came mostly from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as he campaigns for president, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who said she won’t vote on Califf until reading the fine print of each of his contracts with medical companies.

“I think if you look at my record, I’ve never been a proponent of lowering standards. If anything, I’ve argued for raising them,” he told Warren. “That doesn’t mean we couldn’t be quicker in some cases.” Read more here.

HOUSE REPUBLICAN CALLS FOR NIH FUNDING: With Congress’s recent deal to eliminate budget caps, Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kansas) wants to make sure that the extra dollars find their way to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Yoder wrote a letter to GOP letters on Tuesday, which was shared first with The Hill, calling for an increase of at least $3 billion in new funding for the NIH.

It’s the same level that was approved earlier this year in the House’s 21st Century Cures Act, which passed with 344 votes. It would bring the total funding for NIH to $33 billion – it’s highest level since the sequester.

“This is consistent with the vote of a large majority of our Conference on the Cures Act earlier this year, and consistent with our Republican values,” he wrote in the letter.

Wednesday’s schedule

House Democrats, led by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), hold a press conference opposing the TPP.

What we’re reading

Federal privacy law lags far behind personal health technologies (Washington Post)

Most voters want candidates to hold down drug prices, survey says (STAT)

Studies find declines in screening and early detection of prostate cancer (NY Times)

Presidential politics complicates life in the Senate (AP)

State by state

Displaced Health Republic customers in NY could lose contraceptive coverage (Capital New York)

Va. faces nearly $1 billion in rising Medicaid costs (Roanoke Times)

What you might have missed from The Hill

Doctors group calls for ban on drug ads

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