New Congress Brings Churn in Health Policy Leadership

Roll Call / By Sandhya Raman

House Energy and Commerce, Senate Finance, to see dramatic shifts in health policy players
 
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…

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