NIH pick makes his case
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Driving The Day
DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK — During his confirmation hearing before the Senate HELP Committee this morning, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya will try to convince senators to confirm him to lead the government's preeminent health research agency, the National Institutes of Health, POLITICO's Erin Schumaker reports.
And if Bhattacharya so chooses, it's a chance to settle old Covid scores.
The Stanford health economist arguably wouldn't be considered for the job if he hadn't co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration in 2020. Thousands of public health experts signed the open letter, which argued against lockdown measures in favor of letting low-risk individuals build up herd immunity while older, sick people self-isolated. Federal scientists and many others criticized the letter as dangerous and unethical.
Bhattacharya's prepared remarks for today endorse HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy's desire to shift focus toward the causes and treatment of chronic diseases, convey skepticism of existing science and express disgust with NIH leadership during the pandemic. Bhattacharya accuses his predecessors of fostering 'a culture of coverup, obfuscation, and a lack of tolerance for ideas that differed from theirs.'
'Dissent is the very essence of science,' Bhattacharya is expected to say at the hearing. He did not respond to a request for comment.
State of play: If confirmed, Bhattacharya will oversee the world's largest health research budget, $48 billion, which universities and researchers worldwide depend on.
But he'll also arrive as the Trump administration moves to slash NIH funding to grantees by $4 billion, cut staff, and defund work on racial inequities and transgender care.
What we're watching: Republicans, like Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, will give Bhattacharya a chance to articulate his plans for the agency.
Cassidy's own plan to overhaul the agency involves subjecting NIH decisions to more outside scrutiny and streamlining the peer-review process.
Rand Paul (R-Ky.), also on the HELP Committee, has his own agenda to press, including a bill to divide the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci's old agency, into three institutes led by Senate-confirmed directors limited to two five-year terms.
Paul's Risky Research Review Act, which the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved last year on a bipartisan vote, is likely to come up. It takes aim at so-called gain-of-function research, in which scientists make pathogens more dangerous to better study them, taking authority over such research away from NIH.
Bhattacharya, in his prepared remarks, said it should be vigorously regulated.
What's next: The hearing is expected to propel Bhattacharya to confirmation as NIH director. Democrats, facing a 47-53 deficit in the Senate, don't have the power to block Bhattacharya's nomination.
They'll have to hope his long history in academia means he'll resist Elon Musk's efforts to root out government waste, which has led to the termination of about 1,200 NIH employees.
'The world's premier biomedical research agency needs a leader who believes in its mission,' Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) told POLITICO in a statement.
WELCOME TO WEDNESDAY PULSE. Some members of our team got a chance to see the Stanley Cup in the office of House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) yesterday. Emmer is a notable hockey fan. Send your tips, scoops and feedback to ccirruzzo@politico.com and khooper@politico.com and follow along @ChelseaCirruzzo and @Kelhoops.
At the White House
MAHA SHOUTOUT — In his first address of his second term to Congress, President Donald Trump shouted out HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s 'Make America Healthy Again' mission.
'Since 1975, rates of child cancer have increased by more than 40 percent. Reversing this trend is one of our top priorities for our new Make America Healthy Again Commission,' which was created by an executive order and chaired by Kennedy, Trump said.
'Our goal is to get toxins out of our environment, poisons out of the food supply and keep our children healthy and strong,' he added.
He also pointed to a CDC statistic that 1 in 36 children have been diagnosed with autism. During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy refused to back down from false claims linking vaccines to autism and said he would reverse his view if 'shown the data.'
'There's something wrong,' Trump said. 'We're going to find out what it is, and there's nobody better than Bobby … to figure out what is going on.'
Trump otherwise made little mention of health care.
Abortion
EMTALA CASE DROPPED — Ahead of a hearing scheduled for Wednesday, the Trump administration said yesterday it would drop a lawsuit against Idaho over the right to emergency abortion care, POLITICO's Alice Miranda Ollstein reports.
Background: The high-profile case was brought on initially by the Biden administration, which argued that Idaho's enforcement of its near-total abortion ban during medical emergencies violated Ronald Reagan-era patient protections under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, better known as EMTALA.
The Supreme Court weighed and punted the case to lower court judges last year, saying it took up the issue prematurely.
What happened: The Boise hospital network St. Luke's said in a court filing Tuesday that the Justice Department informed the network that it is moving to dismiss the case.
In that same brief, St. Luke's, which sued the state in January because it expected the Trump administration to bow out, pleaded for a temporary restraining order ahead of a scheduled hearing today to ensure that emergency abortions don't become illegal again while the court deliberates.
On Tuesday night, an Idaho district court judge granted the temporary restraining order barring the state attorney general from prosecuting medical providers who assist with abortions in medical emergencies.
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment. The Idaho attorney general's office did not respond to questions about its plans for the case.
The Trump administration hasn't yet indicated whether it plans to rescind the Biden administration's 2022 guidance that hospitals must render stabilizing care in an emergency, including abortions when necessary, regardless of state bans.
AROUND THE AGENCIES
BYE, BYE BRUTALIST BUILDING? HHS' iconic brutalist headquarters building in downtown Washington was briefly targeted for sale as part of a government downsizing effort, I report with POLITICO's Sophia Cai.
The FDA's sprawling White Oak Campus in Silver Spring, Maryland, and CMS' headquarters near Baltimore were also on the potential chopping block.
The headquarters for the three agencies appeared on a list of 'nonessential' buildings that could be sold by the General Services Administration, which manages federal buildings. As of Tuesday night, both HHS and FDA buildings had been removed, but CMS remains.
'For decades, chronic underfunding has left many of these buildings functionally obsolete and unsuitable for the modern federal workforce,' the GSA said in a statement. 'We can no longer assume that funding will materialize to fix these longstanding issues.'
The GSA compiled a list of nonessential buildings at the behest of Elon Musk and his government-efficiency push.
Sales of the buildings, which also included the JFK federal building in Boston, are not yet definite. The GSA said in a statement that it 'welcomes creative solutions, including sale-lease backs, ground leases and other forms of public/private partnerships to drive the full optimization of our space.'
HHS did not respond to requests for comment.
CDC REHIRES STAFF — Some terminated CDC fellows who worked on lab safety and public health threats are being reinstated, POLITICO's Sophie Gardner reports.
Fellows at the Laboratory Leadership Service and the Public Health Associate Program were informed that they could return to their jobs, according to two reinstated fellows who spoke to POLITICO on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
Fellows received an email, which was obtained by POLITICO, with the subject line 'read this email immediately' Tuesday. The email rescinded their termination 'after further review and consideration.' The staff had been placed on administrative leave in mid-February and had expected to be terminated on March 14.
'You are cleared to return to work on Wednesday, March 5, 2025,' the email reads. 'We apologize for any disruption that this may have caused.'
Roughly 700 CDC employees were cut last month on the recommendation of Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
It's unclear how many employees were reinstated, and the CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
WHAT WE'RE READING
POLITICO's Robert King reports that CMS has pulled health equity guidance for states.
Chelsea reports on HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy touting vitamin A as a measles treatment.
Kelly reports that United Healthcare has pledged a 10 percent cut on prior authorizations.
POLITICO's Arek Sarkissian reports that the Florida governor said he expects federal regulators to ban fluoride in drinking water.
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