Monthly Legislative Newsletter December 2020 The Biden Transition and His Team On November 23, 2020, the General Services Administration formally allowed critical transition funds and activities to be made available to President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris, thus officially beginning the transition process to the new administration. This comes nearly two weeks after most major news outlets had already declared Joe Biden the winner of the election and despite the Trump campaign continuing to contest results in many states including Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Wisconsin. What does this mean? It means that President-Elect Biden can begin sending teams to meet and observe current agency personnel, make personnel and Cabinet appointment decisions, obtain security clearances for incoming personnel, and start making policy and management agendas. For more information on the details of a Presidential transition, you can read the Partnership for Public Services 2020 transition guide HERE. President-Elect Biden’s transition team is made up of hundreds of individuals from across the nation who are various subject and policy matter experts. Additionally, President-Elect Biden tapped longtime friend and former Chief of Staff while Biden was in the Senate, Ted Kaufman, to lead the transition. Below you will find more information on President-Elect Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services Transition team. HHS Agency Review Team Name Most Recent Employment Source of Funding Chiquita Brooks- Manatt, Phelps and Phillips, LLP Volunteer LaSure, Team Lead Robert Gordon, Team State of Michigan, Department Volunteer Lead of Health & Human Services Kathryn Alvarez The Aspen Institute Volunteer John Auerbach Trust for America’s Health Volunteer Lisa Barclay Boies Schiller Flexner, LLP Volunteer Jonathan Blum Health Management Associates Volunteer Lu Borio In-Q-Tel Volunteer Perrie Briskin University of California, Volunteer Berkeley Ken Choe Hogan Lovells, LLP Volunteer Henry Claypool Self-employed Volunteer Jose Cordero University of Georgia Volunteer Sarah Despres Pew Charitable Trusts Volunteer Eliot Fishman Families USA Volunteer Cristal Gary AMITA Health Volunteer Mina Hsiang Devoted Health Volunteer Tom Inglesby Johns Hopkins University Volunteer David C. Kaslow PATH Volunteer Natalie Kates Alloy Volunteer Jeremy Konyndyk Center for Global Development Volunteer Anna Martinez State of New Jersey, Volunteer Department of Children and Families, Division on Women Sarah Nolan Service Employees International Volunteer Union Yngvild Olsen Institutes for Behavior Volunteer Resources, Inc. Edwin Park Georgetown University Volunteer Sharon Parrott Center on Budget and Policy Volunteer Priorities Chuck Peck Guidehouse, Inc. Volunteer Anne Reid Co-Equal Volunteer Geoff Roth Self-employed Volunteer Meena Seshamani MedStar Health Volunteer Cyrus Shahpar Resolve to Save Lives, an Volunteer initiative of Vital Strategies Mary Wakefield University of Texas at Austin Volunteer Sonya Bernstein NYC Health + Hospitals Transition Sarah Bianchi Evercore ISI Volunteer Elizabeth Cameron Nuclear Threat Initiative Volunteer Danielle Carnival I AM ALS Volunteer Mark Greenberg Migration Policy institute Volunteer Rebecca Katz Georgetown University Volunteer David Kessler University of California, San Volunteer Francisco Tim Manning Research Corporation of the Volunteer University of Hawaii – Pacific Disaster Center Julie Morgan Roosevelt Institute Volunteer Vivek Murthy Self-employed Volunteer -2- Sherice Perry Biden for President Transition Natalie Quillian BFPCC, Inc. Volunteer Marcella Nunez-Smith Yale University Volunteer Jeff Zients The Cranemere Group Volunteer As you can see from the list above, Biden has tapped academics, health professionals, healthcare executives, and former Obama Administration officials to help lead his transition. This experienced group of individuals will start the process of transitioning from the Trump HHS to the Biden HHS and this effort will continue all the way up until inauguration day. While it is very possible that some of the transition team will take on roles within HHS and the administration, that is not guaranteed. Much of this group will go back to their rolls in academia and the private sector once the transition concludes. Additionally, much of the staffing of HHS will be left to the HHS Secretary, who has yet to be nominated. Who will be Secretary of HHS? President-Elect Biden has yet to disclose who he will choose to run the Department of Health and Human Services. However, there are a number of names floating around that he is likely to choose from. Below you will find the most likely candidates with a brief biography. Governor of New Mexico Michele Lujan Grisham – Before serving as Governor of New Mexico, Lujan Grisham was a former New Mexico Congresswoman, giving her experience with the ins and outs of working in Washington, DC and establishing relationships on Capitol Hill. Additionally, before Congress, she was the New Mexico Secretary of Health, giving her valuable experience running a large state-wide governmental agency. She also co-chairs Biden’s transition team. Dr. Vivek Murthy – Dr. Vivek Murthy is a former U.S. Surgeon General during the Obama administration, former Vice Admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and founder of Doctors for America. With Dr. Murthy being widely respected in the medical world, his appointment could be particularly interesting in the middle of a pandemic. Dr. Mandy Cohen – Dr. Cohen is the current North Carolina Secretary of Health and professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Additionally, during the Obama administration, she served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief of Staff at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. While any of these three individuals could be nominated by President-Elect Biden, there is no guarantee they will be confirmed should Republicans maintain control of the Senate. However, many Republican Senators have indicated they will support President-Elect Biden’s nomination should they not be too far left on the political spectrum. Appropriations Update -3- As of right now, the government will run out of funding on December 11th, thereby creating a government shutdown. However, both Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) have indicated that they would like to reach an agreement, avoiding a government shutdown and preventing the need for a Continuing Resolution. All of that being said, there is no guarantee that President Trump would sign the omnibus package. He has used shutdowns for political purposes in the past and as he continues to challenge the results of the election, he could attempt to use a government shutdown for some sort of political gain. COVID-19 Stimulus Update On December 1st, 2020, another COVID-19 stimulus package was dropped by a bipartisan and bicameral group of lawmakers including Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT). The bill totals $908 billion in COVID-19 related relief and includes: $35 billion for the Healthcare Provider Relief Fund $160 billion for states and cities $180 billion for unemployment insurance $288 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program $16 billion for vaccine development and distribution Provides short-term federal protection from COVID-19 related lawsuits In order for the relief measure to pass, there would have to be buy-in from party leadership on both sides of the aisle. At this point, that is no guarantee of either party’s leadership giving the okay as the top line cost is more than double Majority Leader McConnell’s proposal previous proposal and less than half the amount of the House Democrat’s HEROES Act. There is also a possibility that additional COVID-19 relief be included in the appropriations omnibus bill that could potentially be passed before the government runs out of funding on December 11th. Will Surprise Billing Finally be Fixed? This week, there is a renewed effort to fix surprise billing. A bipartisan group of lawmakers across multiple committees are meeting to find a legislative fix to the issue, which has plagued Congress for years. Specifically, the pressure is mounting on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D- CA) and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). As of now, they are reluctant to come out and approve a fix because they do not want to cross the powerful hospital and doctor lobbies at this point in time. Additionally, any legislative fix would have to work around House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) who successfully derailed the efforts to fix surprise billing earlier this year. However, should either Speaker Pelosi or Majority Leader McConnell approve a fix, the other would be forced to at least bring the issue up for a vote. -4- PRG will continue to monitor the developments on the surprise billing issue. President Trump’s Drug Import Plan One of President Trump’s biggest promises during the 2016 campaign was to bring down the price of prescription drugs for everyday Americans. Thus far, he has been unable to do so. His last major proposal, his drug importation plan, which allows for the importation of certain European countries and Canada, is currently grabbing headlines. The rule, which has yet to take effect, is already starting to be challenged in court by the pharmaceutical companies who believe that the action will hurt research and development of new drugs and hurt American businesses.