HHS: Congress, we need more Covid funds

Feb 16, 2022

Presented by

With Alice Miranda Ollstein, David Lim, Katherine Foley and Erin Banco

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Driving the Day

— The pandemic response needs a refuel, top health officials told lawmakers Tuesday.

— Robert Califf is back at the FDA after a slim vote in the Senate that made the challenges he faces apparent.

— A top pandemic official is leaving HHS at the height of global vaccine questions.

WELCOME TO WEDNESDAY PULSE — Gonna be selfish here — can we talk about pandemic dating shows, aka Love Is Blind? Send your trash TV suggestions, news and tips to sowermohle@politico.com.

A message from PhRMA:

Washington is talking about price setting of medicines, but it won't stop insurers from shifting costs to you. And it will risk access to medicines and future cures. Instead, let's cap your out-of-pocket costs, stop middlemen from pocketing your discounts and make insurance work for you. Let's protect patients. It's the right choice. Learn more.

Driving the Day

HHS ASKS CONGRESS FOR $30B FOR COVID RESPONSE — Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told congressional appropriators in charge of crafting a supplemental pandemic funding package on Tuesday that his agency needs at least $30 billion to keep its wide-ranging Covid-19 response work going.

What's happening: HHS held a call with lawmakers Tuesday morning and told them the funds are needed for "more lifesaving treatments and vaccines, sustaining testing capacity and investing in research and development of next-generation vaccines," Alice and Adam Cancryn report.

The Biden administration's total ask for a Covid supplemental that rides alongside the 2022 omnibus lawmakers are currently crafting is likely to be significantly higher once other agencies make their asks.

Trouble ahead: Many Republicans will oppose the request for more Covid funds. Some in the GOP argue more isn't needed, citing the country's improving pandemic and economic outlook and the multiple rounds of federal aid Congress pumped out over the last two years, which some lawmakers believe has contributed to soaring inflation.

"Spending $30 billion more without proper oversight or a proper plan to end the public health emergency is not how we give Americans their freedom back," said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), the top Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee. "It's time to unwind this pandemic of bureaucracy, get government out of the way and allow Americans to return to normal life."

CALIFF RETURNS TO FDA — More than a year into President Joe Biden's presidency, the Food and Drug Administration has a permanent leader after the Senate again confirmed Robert Califf to the agency's top job in a narrow 50-46 vote Tuesday. Janet Woodcock, who served as Biden's acting commissioner, announced she will stay at the FDA as Califf's principal deputy.

Califf's second tour atop the FDA may look significantly different than his first stint during the Obama administration's final year — the clinical trial expert has several years to set priorities for the agency critical to the response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Califf's preexisting relationship with retiring Senate HELP Committee ranking member Richard Burr(R-N.C.) positions him to play a critical role as a liaison with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle during a consequential legislative year for the FDA, David writes.

Medical product user fee programs that fund much of the FDA's review workforce expire at the end of this fiscal year. New pandemic preparedness legislation, as well as components of a second iteration of the 21st Century Cures Act , may also be attached to a reauthorization package. Hot-button issues like drug approval standards and opioid policy await Califf, and he'll play a role in filling the FDA's soon-to-be-vacant chief tobacco regulator job.

What about food? POLITICO's Helena Bottemiller Evich notes that Califf, a cardiologist, doesn't have much of a track record on food issues, though he was at the agency when the Nutrition Facts update was finalized in 2016. During his confirmation hearing, Califf was asked only one food-related question, and that was whether the FDA could crack down on the use of dairy terms like "milk" on plant-based alternatives.

FIRST IN PULSE: HHS GLOBAL PANDEMIC CHIEF DEPARTS — Larry Kerr is leaving the Health and Human Services Department where he led the Office of Global Affairs' pandemics and emerging threats division, a person with knowledge told PULSE.

Kerr joined the department in early 2016 after years working with the White House on medical preparedness and national security. It's unclear what his next role will be.

The longtime medical preparedness expert has been low-profile but instrumental in global Covid-19 vaccination distribution discussions. His departure comes amid increasing pressure on the U.S. to provide vaccines to low-income countries in an equitable way.

A message from PhRMA:

In Congress

SENATE DEMS PUSH FOR BIRTH CONTROL MANDATE — Nearly three dozen Senate Democrats led by Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) wrote to the secretaries of Health, Labor and the Treasury on Wednesday calling for stepped-up enforcement of Obamacare's requirement that insurance companies cover all FDA-approved forms of birth control at no cost to patients.

"Since the ACA's passage, certain insurers have not complied with this provision," wrote the senators, citing data and testimonies gathered by the National Women's Law Center and the Labor Department. "Ultimately, these actions make it harder for people to access medically necessary birth control and force them to pay out-of-pocket for services that they are legally entitled to receive cost-free."

The senators are specifically asking the Biden administration for issue new guidance that insurers provide an easy way for patients to request an exemption if they're denied coverage of their preferred method of contraception and to lay out a new enforcement mechanism to crack down on noncompliant insurance companies by the end of March, Alice writes.

Around the Agencies

JUDGE ALLOWS ALTRIA-JUUL DEAL — An administrative law judge on Tuesday ruled that Altria's purchase of 35 percent of e-cigarette maker Juul didn't violate antitrust laws.

Background: Altria, which owns the cigarette brand Marlboro, bought shares of the e-cigarette company for $12.8 billion in 2018, shortly before discontinuing its own vape production. In 2020, the Federal Trade Commission sought to undo the deal, arguing that it quashed competition in the vaping industry and therefore violated antitrust laws.

But … FTC commissioners still have to vote on the judge's decision; if the agency disagrees with the ruling, the two companies could take the case to a federal appeals court, Katherine writes.

Names in the News

Former HHS Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan will join Cornell University as a lecturer in health administration, he announced on Twitter.

What We're Reading

The Centers for Disease Control and Preventioncould update its indoor masking guidelines next week, NBC News' Berkeley Lovelace Jr. and Heidi Przybyla report. POLITICO's Erin Banco and Adam Cancrynreported last week that the agency was weighing the option.

There may be anotherperson cured of HIV — only the third in history — this time using a transplant method with umbilical cord blood, The New York Times' Apoorva Mandavilli writes.

The pandemic fueled massive telehealth expansion, but the industry is still distillingwhether virtual visits translate to more doctor interaction and meaningful benefits, Stat News' Mohana Ravindranath writes.

A message from PhRMA: