How Democrats will highlight abortion restrictions this week

Today’s edition: Top federal officials are hosting a meeting aimed at increasing access to key overdose-reversal medications. President Biden officially announces Mandy Cohen as the next leader of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But first … 

Congressional Democrats plan messaging efforts ahead of Dobbs anniversary

Congressional Democrats are seeking to draw attention to a post-Roe America — where most abortions are banned in roughly 15 states — ahead of the first anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision.

In the Senate, the plan involves procedural moves and floor speeches. And in the House, key lawmakers have crafted a petition to attempt to force a vote to codify Roe v. Wade, while continuing to introduce abortion-related bills. 

The party’s efforts this week underscore the harsh reality Democrats have faced since the nation’s highest court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion last year: They don’t have the votes in Congress to enact sweeping change to the nation’s new abortion landscape. 

Yet, their activism over the next few days is aimed at keeping the issue at the forefront of voters’ minds and putting Republicans on the spot. Democrats scored major victories during last year’s midterm elections, and the party is now facing the challenge of maintaining that momentum for the 2024 presidential election cycle. 

• “We are going to continue to do everything we can here in Congress to try and protect women as best as we can, with our ultimate goal being to overturn the Roe decision,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), a vocal abortion rights supporter who serves as the Senate’s first female president pro tempore.

But she’s cognizant of the battle to achieve Democrats’ goal. “The only way we will get that is by having enough pro-choice senators who will help us vote to put that in law,” Murray said in an interview last week.

Democrats have a razor-thin majority in the chamber. They don’t have the votes to make Roe the law of the land. And they also don’t have the numbers to upend the filibuster, which is the rule requiring 60 votes to pass legislation.

So, instead, the chamber’s Democrats are planning to attempt to move several bills on the floor this week by unanimous consent. Like a similar effort last year, the measures aren’t likely to pass, and the procedural maneuver doesn’t require all senators to cast votes. But for Democrats, it’s a chance to publicly force Republicans to object to certain policies, while paving the way for pro-abortion rights senators to discuss the issue on the chamber floor. 

Tomorrow afternoon, Senate Democrats, led by Murray, will seek unanimous consent on four bills, according to details shared with The Health 202. Those measures are aimed at …

• Enshrining the right to use contraception into federal law; 
• Shielding doctors in states where abortion is legal from any efforts to restrict their practice;
• Expanding privacy protections for online health and location data;
• Protecting from prosecution patients and health care providers who treat someone who has traveled out of state for an abortion (there don’t appear to be charges filed in such instances since Roe was overturned and state laws exempt those seeking an abortion from prosecution).

House Democrats are aiming to file a discharge petition this week in an attempt to force a vote on a bill to codify Roe into law.

The procedural effort has garnered the support of the vast majority of Democrats, in addition to three nonvoting delegates, according to Ryan Brown, a spokesperson for Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), a co-chair of the Pro-Choice Caucus. Four Democratic members have yet to sign onto the measure as of Friday afternoon. The petition would also need the endorsement of a handful of Republicans to net the required 218 signatures to help propel the bill to the floor. 

The lawmakers behind the effort have been working with Democratic leadership, but getting enough GOP support is a long shot. The plan was first reported by Axios. 

Over the past year, Democrats have also leaned into another strategy: Introducing more abortion-related legislation. 

One such effort will come Thursday. Democrats in both the House and Senate are planning to reintroduce the Reproductive Health Travel Fund Act aimed at providing financial help to those who travel for an abortion, according to details shared first with The Health 202. 

The bill would create a $350 million program to disseminate grants over four years to pay for expenses such as travel, lodging, meals and child care. In a statement, Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-Wash.) said the bill, if passed, “fulfills our responsibility to guarantee reproductive freedom for all women regardless of where they live.”

• The Democrat-backed legislation comes from Strickland, Reps. Lizzie Fletcher (Tex.) and Cori Bush (Mo.), as well as Murray and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.).

The Post’s David Ovalle sends us this dispatch:

👀 What we’re watching: Top federal officials at the Office of National Drug Control Policy are hosting a meeting about increasing access to overdose-reversal medications such as naloxone, a key part of the Biden administration’s strategy to combating opioid overdose deaths. Administration officials will meet with manufacturers of medications that have already been approved by the FDA, per a White House official. 

The meeting comes on the heels of the Food and Drug Administration approving Narcan, the nasal spray version of naloxone, for sale without a prescription; kits will hit store shelves in late summer. Last month, the FDA also approved Indivior’s Opvee, a nalmefene spray touted as a powerful antidote to synthetic opioids like fentanyl. 

Critics have slammed drugmakers over the high costs of sprays, especially because liquid, injectable naloxone is far cheaper. Narcan maker Emergent BioSolutions, which confirmed it will attend Tuesday’s meeting, plans to price the spray at “less than $50.” Stat first reported the meeting.

Biden announces physician Mandy Cohen will lead CDC

It’s official: President Biden has tapped Mandy Cohen to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The former North Carolina health secretary will start at the Atlanta-based agency in early July, where she’ll be responsible for shepherding its 13,000 employees through a sweeping revamp and convincing skeptics on Capitol Hill to provide the agency with new powers and funding, our colleagues Dan Diamond and Lena H. Sun report. 

Why did the president choose Cohen? For one: She’s a proven leader who had the right fans and allies inside the administration. She also has a track record of working with Republicans and former colleagues call her a “savvy bridge-builder.” Read Dan’s piece in the Health 202 for more details on Cohen.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D): 

• The FDA has directed coronavirus vaccine manufacturers to make single-strain shots for the fall that target the Omicron subvariant XBB. 1.5. The announcement came one day after the agency’s advisers unanimously recommended that the updated boosters target the XBB variants.
• Drugmaker Bristol Myers Squibb is suing the federal government over a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act that would let Medicare negotiate drug prices, making it the second major pharmaceutical company to do so in less than two weeks, The Washington Post’s Eli Tan reports. 

ICYMI: There was plenty of action in the states before the holiday weekend.

In Iowa: Abortions will remain legal until 22 weeks of pregnancy after the state Supreme Court deadlocked on whether to grant Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds’s request to reinstate the state’s ban on most abortions when fetal cardiac activity is detected at roughly six weeks. It passed in 2018 but never went into effect, our colleague John Wagner reports. 

In Indiana: A federal judge blocked the state’s new ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors from taking effect next month. The judge’s order upheld the law’s prohibition on gender-affirming surgeries for transgender youth, according to the Indianapolis Star. 

In Ohio: The state Supreme Court ruled Friday that an August special election for voters to decide whether it should be harder to amend the state constitution can proceed, Haley BeMiller reports for the Columbus Dispatch. If passed, the Republican-backed proposal would make it more difficult for abortion rights supporters to enshrine protections into the state’s constitution in November.

📅 Welcome back to another week of Congress, where lawmakers have teed up a slew of events for Wednesday. Here’s what we’re watching tomorrow: 

On the House floor: Lawmakers are slated to consider a bill that would let employers upload health insurance tax forms online rather than mailing paperwork to their employees’ homes. The chamber is also expected to vote on a bill that would codify a Trump-era rule expanding health reimbursement arrangements among other measures.

In the committees: In a closed-door session, the Senate Armed Services Committee will markup a bill to terminate the Pentagon’s new abortion policy; the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee will consider the effectiveness of the Office of Integrated Veteran Care. 

On the other side of the Capitol, the House select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic will examine restrictions on places of worship during the public health crisis; the House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee will discuss legislation to combat the opioid crisis; a House Education and the Workforce subcommittee will discuss the path toward a stronger health care market; a House Veterans’ Affairs subcommittee will review the Veterans Care Improvement Act, among other health policies. 

Also on Wednesday: The Post will host a conversation with CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure and other health experts on inequities in cancer care and outcomes. Later, our colleague Frances Stead Sellers will interview legal expert Mary Ziegler on the state-by-state battle over abortion.

On Thursday: A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee will assess the implementation of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, which changed the way the federal government pays physicians. 

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Could cancer become a chronic, treatable disease? For many, it already is. (By Katherine Ellison | The Washington Post)

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Thanks for reading! See y’all tomorrow.