Policy

The Senate Finance Committee advanced a bipartisan tax administration package Thursday aimed at modernizing the IRS, improving customer service and strengthening taxpayer rights. The committee voted, 26-1, to approve the sprawling tax modernization bill, which encompasses a laundry list of tax provisions including some proposals that have already gotten backing from either House tax writers […]

Voters in battleground states and congressional districts tend to voice support for proposals in Congress that would expand access to health care or lower drug costs — often irrespective of their party affiliation — according to new polling from the University of Maryland. The poll, first shared with CQ Roll Call, surveyed people in 11 competitive states like Pennsylvania, Georgia […]

Rep. Morgan Griffith would love to eat an all-beef hot dog. But the eight-term Virginia Republican from one of the biggest cattle-producing districts in Congress doesn’t eat red meat — against his will. Griffith is one of the at least 450,000 Americans who have been diagnosed with alpha-gal syndrome, a disease caused by a tick […]

Republicans in Congress have spent the past year sounding an alarm over waste, fraud and abuse in government health care programs with a midterm-focused message that cutting fraud will help lower consumers’ costs.  While many voters say that soaring health care costs are a top issue for the approaching elections, new polling shows they’re largely […]

​A fight over an embattled drug discount program is intensifying on Capitol Hill, as lawmakers weigh competing proposals to reshape the program amid escalating tensions between hospitals and drugmakers. Lawmakers in both chambers have rolled out, or are planning to soon introduce, fresh proposals to alter the 340B program, which requires drug manufacturers sell deeply […]

The number of former servicemembers enrolled in the Department of Veterans Affairs system who have had traumatic brain injuries spiked considerably in the last four years on record, new data from the department shows. The figures, which were posted on the VA website last week, demonstrate that the number of reported TBI instances in the […]

The Trump administration will not renew direct federal funding of community-based organizations that work on HIV prevention, according to multiple groups impacted by the freeze. The move is the latest step in the administration’s push to eliminate funding for DEI-focused initiatives that help the LGBTQ community. But this one directly contradicts the White House’s push […]

Opposition is building to a sweeping government-wide crackdown on federal grant awards, with opponents threatening litigation over a proposed rule that would put the grant approval process into the hands of political appointees. A request for public comment on the rule by the Office of Management and Budget triggered almost half a million responses, most […]

The Trump administration terminated dozens of health research grants this week, telling grantees it is shifting priorities to issues like the “overmedication of children” and autism, according to a prominent research organization. The cuts hit projects at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, many of them multiyear awards that had already been indefinitely delayed. At least 67 […]

The House Budget Committee approved a fiscal 2027 budget resolution Thursday as the first step toward passing a filibuster-proof reconciliation bill to provide tens of billions of dollars for defense, farm aid and voting restrictions. The panel advanced the GOP-backed budget resolution on a strictly party-line vote of 20-14 after rejecting 14 amendments, all offered […]