Senate Republicans Continue to Shape Budget Bill In Race to Meet July 4 Deadline

Senators continued working at a breakneck pace to put its stamp on President Trump’s budget and tax plan passed by the House of Representatives. The version of the plan passed in the House of Representatives will slash $490 billion from Medicare, $715 billion from Medicaid, and $290 billion from food assistance to pay for $3.7 trillion in more tax cuts for the wealthy.

On Thursday, Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley released text for the committee’s contributions to the Republican budget plan. The text includes language that would limit the power of preliminary injunctions and temporary restraining orders issued in federal court cases.

The Senate Finance Committee is expected to release its portion of the bill today or early next week. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (OK) suggested that the committee will opt to leave out provisions capping State and Local Taxes (SALT) as negotiations continue. The committee is also debating the specifics for scaling back the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax credits. The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee has not publicly released its portion related to cuts to Medicaid and Medicare.

Senate Democrats warned that Medicare and Medicaid cuts included in the budget plan will close hundreds of hospitals that serve rural Americans, citing 338 rural hospitals that are particularly at risk. A new report from the Center for American Progress also shows that the bill will increase health care costs for older Americans by thousands of dollars each year.

ACTION NEEDED: Click here to tell your senators to vote against Republicans’ destructive budget proposal when it comes to the floor.

“Increasing costs and slashing Medicare, Medicaid, and food assistance for seniors to provide more tax cuts for the wealthy is extremely cruel,” said Richard Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance. “We will continue to mobilize our members to speak out against this cruel bill before the Senate vote.”

HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy, Jr. Replaces Expert Members of CDC Vaccine Panel

On Monday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. removed all 17 members of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s immunization advisory committee. He claimed this “clean sweep” was necessary to improve public confidence in vaccine science but it has instead sparked major concerns about the future of the panel.

Kennedy then named new ACIP panel members who are staunch opponents of vaccines or have little to no experience with vaccine policy. New panel members include physician and biochemist Robert Malone, who has spread misinformation about the COVID vaccine; Martin Kulldorff, who encouraged lifting COVID lockdown restrictions before vaccines were available to Americans; and Vicky Pebsworth, who serves as a board member for the prominent anti-vaccine organization National Vaccine Information Center.

The Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) was created to provide expert, scientific advice to the CDC on who should receive vaccines and when. The CDC sets vaccination schedules based on ACIP’s advice and private insurance plans, Medicare, and Medicare are required to cover any vaccines the ACIP recommends.

The American Public Health Association and the Infectious Disease Society of America denounced the decision as well.

“Secretary Kennedy has not only reneged on his sworn promise not to replace ACIP members but he is ignoring decades of proven science,” said Joseph Peters, Jr., Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance. “We should also be concerned about what this means for the nation’s health.”

Dangerous Fiscal Commission Legislation That Fast Tracks Social Security and Medicare Cuts Re-Introduced in House of Representatives

Rep. Bill Huizenga (MI) introduced the Fiscal Commission Act (H.R. 3289) last month, and it has already secured 28 bipartisan cosponsors. The legislation calls for establishing a 16-member “Fiscal Commission” consisting of twelve members of Congress and four “outside experts” appointed by congressional leaders.

The commission would make recommendations on how to balance the federal budget – including potential Social Security and Medicare cuts – and deliver them to Congress following the November 2026 elections. The commission would do its work behind closed doors and fast track its changes to the floor for an up or down vote. Members of Congress would not even be allowed to offer amendments and options to increase revenue, such as lifting the cap on income subject to Social Security or Medicare taxes.

“Social Security does not contribute one penny to the federal deficit,” said Robert Roach, Jr., President of the Alliance. “The Alliance strongly opposes this bill and any other legislation that would cut Americans’ hard-earned, guaranteed benefits. We will be watching how this bill progresses in the House closely.”

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KFF Health News: As Cannabis Users Age, Health Risks Appear To Grow

By Paula Span

Benjamin Han, a geriatrician and addiction medicine specialist at the University of California-San Diego, tells his students a cautionary tale about a 76-year-old patient who, like many older people, struggled with insomnia.

“She had problems falling asleep, and she’d wake up in the middle of the night,” he said. “So her daughter brought her some sleep gummies” — edible cannabis candies.

“She tried a gummy after dinner and waited half an hour,” Han said.

Feeling no effects, she took another gummy, then one more — a total of four over several hours.

Han advises patients who are trying cannabis to “start low; go slow,” beginning with products that contain just 1 or 2.5 milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive ingredient that many cannabis products contain. Each of the four gummies this patient took, however, contained 10 milligrams.

The woman started experiencing intense anxiety and heart palpitations. A young person might have shrugged off such symptoms, but this patient had high blood pressure and atrial fibrillation, a heart arrhythmia. Frightened, she went to an emergency room.

Lab tests and a cardiac work-up determined the woman wasn’t having a heart attack, and the staff sent her home. Her only lingering symptom was embarrassment, Han said. But what if she’d grown dizzy or lightheaded and was hurt in a fall? He said he has had patients injured in falls or while driving after using cannabis. What if the cannabis had interacted with the prescription drugs she took?

“As a geriatrician, it gives me pause,” Han said. “Our brains are more sensitive to psychoactive substances as we age.”

Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia now allow cannabis use for medical reasons, and in 24 of those states, as well as the district, recreational use is also legal. As older adults’ use climbs, “the benefits are still unclear,” Han said. “But we’re seeing more evidence of potential harms.”