New Congress brings churn in health policy leadership

Congress’ most influential health panels will see dramatic changes next year, with several advocates on specific issues like mental health, Medicare and drug pricing retiring or losing their reelection bids. 

The biggest changes will be in store at the House Energy and Commerce Committee, whose wide-ranging jurisdiction includes health insurance, biomedical research, and drug and device safety.

Five of the 12 Democrats on the Health Subcommittee will not be returning: Ranking member Anna G. Eshoo of California and Reps. John Sarbanes of Maryland, Tony Cárdenas of California and Ann McLane Kuster of New Hampshire did not seek reelection this year. And Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware was elected to the Senate.

Eshoo was active in Democrats’ efforts to negotiate the price of some prescription drugs under Medicare and has pushed for increasing biomedical research and expanding access to health insurance. Cárdenas has been a proponent of the three-digit 988 suicide hotline and helped found the Bipartisan House 988 and Crisis Services Task Force.

Republicans will see at least four fewer familiar faces: Former Health Subcommittee Chair Michael C. Burgess of Texas and Larry Bucshon and Greg Pence of Indiana will retire at the end of this year. Full Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., is also retiring. Iowa Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ race has not yet been called, though she currently holds a narrow lead.

Rodgers has led the committee on oversight of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and she unveiled a framework to overhaul the National Institutes of Health with Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Robert B. Aderholt, R-Ala., earlier this year.

She’s been an advocate on disability rights issues and a co-chair of the Congressional Task Force on Down Syndrome.

Bucshon, who worked closely on Medicare reimbursement issues, penned a 2023 organ transplant law and portions of the 2016 opioid law related to expanding access to medication-assisted treatment. His efforts to reform diagnostic lab tests and replace the 2010 health care law with a Republican alternative fell short.

The number of spots open for either party on the panel next will depend on the outcome of the remaining House elections.

The Education and the Workforce Committee, meanwhile, will be under new leadership after Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., announced she would not seek another term as chairwoman earlier this year.

The committee is responsible for health benefits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and some programs housed under the Administration for Children and Families, such as Head Start, the Child Care and Development Block Grant and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. 

The Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions will lose its chair, Bob Good, R-Va., who lost his primary; Jim Banks, R-Ind., who was elected to the Senate; Susan Wild, D-Pa., who lost reelection; and Kathy Manning, D-N.C., who is retiring.

Reps. Michelle Steel, R-Calif., and Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Ore., are in races that are still too close to call, according to The Associated Press.

Senate 

The Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over Medicare and Medicaid, parts of the Administration for Children and Families and the Office of Inspector General, will see big changes to its Democratic membership.

Six of its 14 members will not be returning: Sens. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland and Thomas R. Carper of Delaware are retiring. Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania lost their reelection bids. And Sen. George S. Helmy, D-N.J., who was appointed to replace former Sen. Bob Menendez, will also not return.

Stabenow, along with former Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., have pushed for the expansion of Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics. 

No Republicans are slated to leave the committee, but it’s unclear whether Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. will remain on the committee now that Republicans have elected him Senate majority leader. 

The Finance Committee will also be charged with the task of renewing and expanding the Trump-era tax law under a likely Chairman Michael D. Crapo, R-Idaho.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will lose Republicans Mike Braun of Indiana — who was elected governor — and retiring Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, as well as Democrat Casey.

Policy gaps

In the wake of the departures, it’s unclear who will carry the torch next on some key issues.

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., is retiring after losing the Senate primary to replace the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Lee is the ranking member on the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Subcommittee, whose purview includes funding global health issues.  She was a key player in the creation of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, parts of which are up for reauthorization next year. She is also a longtime co-chair of the Pro-Choice Caucus.

The GOP Doctors Caucus will lose half of its leadership with co-chairs Burgess and Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, retiring. Bucshon is also a member. 

The 11-term Burgess also chairs the House Budget Committee’s health task force. He has shaped a number of issues related to Medicare physician payments including spearheading the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015.

But the House will have at least two new Republican doctors — Reps.-elect Bob Onder of Missouri and Mike Kennedy of Utah.

The Bipartisan Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Task Force will lose both of its Democratic co-chairs, Kuster as well as Rep. David Trone of Maryland. Trone lost the Maryland Senate Democratic primary earlier this year. The Task Force was formed in 2021 with the merging of the Bipartisan Opioid Task Force — established in 2015 by Kuster and then-Rep. Frank Guinta, R-N.H. — and the Freshmen Working Group on Addiction, which was created in 2019 by Trone.

With Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., a member of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, retiring, Congress will lose its leading advocate for cannabis legalization. Blumenauer founded the Congressional Cannabis Caucus and pushed for the enactment of his bill that expanded research on medical marijuana. His successor, Rep.-elect Maxine Dexter, also a Democrat, however, also has medical expertise: She’s a pulmonologist.

Jessie Hellmann contributed to this report.