Category: US

Yet the plan will now move forward without a provision that would have penalized drugmakers for hiking costs faster than inflation in private insurance plans as well as Medicare.

The exclusion of the private insurance price limits means there is little left that will reduce costs for the vast majority of Americans who receive health insurance through their private sector employer. Democrats are still waiting on a separate parliamentarian ruling on their policy to cap the cost of insulin both inside and outside of Medicare.

The decision also means tens of billions less in federal savings in the bill overall, a potential threat to Democrats’ hopes of offsetting the cost for shoring up Obamacare’s subsidies.

Still, Democrats argue that the bill will move forward in the coming weeks with its most important provision intact: a repeal of the longstanding ban on the federal government directly negotiating drug prices with pharmaceutical companies.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the parliamentarian’s ruling “good news” in a statement Saturday.

“Medicare will finally be allowed to negotiate prescription drug prices, seniors will have free vaccines and their costs capped, and much more,” he said.

Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), a key negotiator on the House version of the bill, said the provision “would break the iron curtain Big Pharma has maintained against negotiating drug prices, and that’s game-changing. If it passes, Pharma won’t be able to continually stick it to the consumer at their will and whim. And that’s especially important with inflation hammering folks at the pump and the grocery store.”

But Welch, who is running to replace the retiring Sen. patrick leahy (D-Vt.), acknowledged the parliamentarian’s ruling is still a big win for the drug industry.

“It would essentially mean that pharma companies could raise price increases well beyond inflation,” he said in an interview in the days leading up to the vote.

Drug companies and Senate Republicans had planned for months to target the inflation caps provision — through a process known on Capitol Hill as a “Byrd bath.” Sen. mike krapo (R-Idaho), the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, told reporters that they went through the bill “line by line” in an effort to bring every challenge they could find.

Democrats who have pushed the policy for years had been confident it could pass under the Senate’s strict reconciliation rules, which limit what kinds of bills can pass with a simple majority. Only proposals that are primarily related to federal spending or revenue can fly, but not those that make major policy changes and only have an “incidental” impact on the federal budget.

Democrats argued that the bill needs inflation caps for drug prices across the board in order to function, warning that failing to do so will mean that pharmaceutical companies can hike prices even higher for people with private insurance to make up for what they lose from the cost controls the bill still imposes on Medicare.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said such points are “normally the kind of argument that is persuasive with the parliamentarian.”

“You can’t untangle the private sector from the public sector — one doesn’t work without the other,” he said.

Backers of the provision also pointed to the Congressional Budget Office’s finding last year that the inflation caps provision would save the government around $80 billion over a decade to argue that it should be allowed to remain in the bill.

Yet reconciliation experts and industry insiders were equally certain that the provision would get knocked out of the package.

“A lot of people think that if something gets a significant CBO score, it can’t be considered incidental — but it’s more about whether the policy implications outweigh the budgetary ones,” said Stephen Northrup, a lobbyist who previously worked as the health policy director for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions. “If the inflation cap were limited to Medicare, you could draw a very direct relationship between the policy and the score. But when you extend it to the commercial market, the relationship becomes more tenuous. It looks less like you’re trying to save money than you’re trying to extend a policy that has impact beyond the federal budget.”

Democrats do not currently have a backup plan for the policy, though some advocates are now pushing to try to apply inflation caps to other federal insurance programs such as Medicaid and the insurance for federal employees.

Even if they are able to do so, progressives who originally pushed for much more sweeping drug price controls are disappointed that their already watered-down plan has become even weaker over the past year.

Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who worked for months on crafting the drug pricing language and wrangling the votes to pass it, blamed the pharmaceutical industry’s influence on Capitol Hill for the inflation cap provision’s demise.

“The special interests always work against us getting relief to hard-hit Americans, particularly seniors,” he told POLITICO ahead of the parliamentarian’s ruling. “So what a surprise that the special interests — and you’ve seen the numbers on how many lobbyists they have — are trying to protect their profits.”

WAUKESHA – Former President Donald Trump looked to boost his chosen candidate for Wisconsin governor in Milwaukee’s Republican suburbs during a rally Friday, adding pressure to a contentious primary that will be decided on Tuesday.

Here are five takeaways from the rally held at the Waukesha County Fairgrounds:

Tim Michels was fired up

Governor hopeful Tim Michels gave one of his most energetic speeches yet, buoyed by Trump’s late-stage appearance. The construction executive, who entered the race late and shot up in the polls after Trump’s endorsement, is hoping to capitalize off the momentum, particularly in the Milwaukee suburbs on Kleefisch’s home turf. Election integrity, Michels said, is his No. 1 priority.

“We are going to stop the Zuckerbucks, out-of-state billionaires coming into our state and taking control of our election process. It won’t happen anymore.” Michels was referring to grants to Wisconsin municipalities funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. Courts have upheld the private grants, most of which went to larger cities where Democratic voters are concentrated.

There’s already a playbook for getting around geographic sourcing requirements: A decades-long program called “Buy America,” intended to ensure road and transit projects are made from American-made materials. The requirements, especially for things like steel, which is produced more cheaply overseas, have been difficult to meet since its inception — and that’s exactly why they’re sometimes waived.

For instance, though Congress enacted stringent new Buy America rules in last year’s massive infrastructure law, they were immediately waived temporarily to give states and cities more time to adapt.

And the new sourcing requirements for electric vehicles that at the moment seem out of reach could go down the Buy America path, too. In fact, automakers and electric vehicle interest groups are already asking for more time before they’re enforced.

The Zero Emission Transportation Association isn’t looking for waivers, but Executive Director Joe Britton said the association and its members have been on Capitol Hill asking Congress to extend the compliance deadlines in the bill by 12 to 18 months.

“We want as much time as we can get,” Britton said. “My view is that every six months we can get as an extension is materially beneficial.”

Where the rubber meets the road

In order to receive a tax credit for buying an electric vehicle, the budget deal Democrats are working to enact requires battery minerals to be at least 40 percent sourced from North America or a US trading partner starting in 2024 and rising from there. And by 2029, battery components would have to be 100 percent made in North America.

Perhaps the most difficult bar, though, considering China’s dominance when it comes to lithium-ion batteries and other minerals and components the vehicles need, is the deal’s stipulation that the credit won’t apply to a vehicle that has any battery components made from an “entity of concern,” such as China, by 2024, and no critical minerals from those sources by 2025.

Not a single electric vehicle currently on the market would qualify. It’s not surprising, considering that the United States accounts for just 8 percent of global lithium-ion battery production, compared to China’s 76 percent.

In some cases, companies may not even be able to trace the source of minerals or subcomponents of their own products.

“We’re an American company that makes American products and we believe that we comply with Buy America,” said Desmond Wheatley, CEO and president of electric vehicle infrastructure company Beam Global. “However, it’s actually very, very difficult to actually know the provenance of the components and raw materials that you’re using.”

“It’s a minefield,” I added. “We’re terrified that we might state that we comply and that somebody down the road may argue that we don’t, because three or four levels of provenance upstream, it turns out that some things come from overseas and we didn’t even know it.”

How those requirements could be waived, eased or fudged

The reconciliation bill does not expressly outline any waivers. But how the requirements are defined and applied by the Treasury Department and IRS could provide some wiggle room.

Britton of ZETA said that while “the law is the law,” Treasury has authority over determining how US businesses are allowed to interact with “entities of concern,” for instance — and the IRS will decide how and when to calculate how much of a battery is foreign-made.

One infrastructure trade executive suggested that there may be even more need for exemptions for the electric vehicle credits than there is for Buy America.

“Maybe it’s not apples to apples but it’s comparing fruit,” said AASHTO executive director Jim Tymon, whose organization represents state Departments of Transportation, including those pushing for Buy America waivers. “With a vehicle or a battery it’s a much more detailed analysis to figure out where those materials are coming from.”

That’s because there are notable differences between Buy America requirements for infrastructure projects and materials like steel, where the requirements have existed for years and the supply chain is well understood, and requirements for private automobile companies to source their battery components from a supply chain that currently doesn’t exist.

Tymon said the temporary waiver DOT put into place allowed infrastructure projects that were in the planning process for years to proceed this summer. Without it, some projects faced delays.

“We understand there’s kind of a chicken or egg situation here,” Tymon said. “If we’re not able to prove to America and Congress that we can get dollars out there in the community, that doesn’t bode well for us when we have to go back to Congress and push for a similar level of investment.”

GM CEO Mary Barra acknowledged on Thursday that while the domestic sourcing language in the reconciliation bill “will help drive further investments in American manufacturing and sustainable, scalable and secure supply chains,” those goals “cannot be achieved overnight.”

Republicans who do not support the reconciliation bill are attempting to make the mineral sourcing requirements even stricter.

Sen. blond frame (R-Fla.) plans to file an amendment to the bill that would require electric vehicles to source 100 percent of their battery and battery components from the US or a country where the US has a free trade agreement immediately, rather than allowing for a transition period. Rubio’s amendment, if adopted, would make electric vehicle tax credits unattainable for years.

But no Republicans are likely to vote for the bill, and the bill language is unlikely to change significantly, given the delicate balancing act it’s taken to get all 50 Democratic senators to sign on.

“Covid is not over. The pandemic is not over,” one senior Biden official said. “It doesn’t make sense to lift this [declaration] given what we’re seeing on the ground in terms of cases.”

An HHS spokesperson declined to comment, and the people with knowledge of the matter cautioned the situation could still change ahead of an Aug. 15 deadline for deciding whether to let the declaration continue.

The Biden administration has increasingly pointed to the availability of Covid vaccines and treatments as evidence that Americans who are vaccinated and boosted can live with the virus in relative safety. But even with that new posture, many administration health officials remain wary of the message that ending the public health emergency declaration would send at a time when caseloads are topping 100,000 a day.

“It will end whenever the emergency ends,” one senior administration official said, summing up the internal attitude toward the declaration.

The emergency designation has also provided authorities that allowed the administration to expand access to Medicaid, greenlight vaccines more quickly and offer tests and therapeutics for free. Were the emergency to be ended, those flexibilities would need to be unwound — a complex process that hospital and public health groups have warned could be disruptive to their ability to treat Covid patients.

The federal government has continuously renewed the declaration since the first Covid cases hit the US in January 2020. And while HHS has pledged to give states 60 days’ notice before allowing it to expire, the administration has refused to set out specific criteria for phasing out its emergency authorities.

The debate around continuing the declaration, however, has grown more contentious. With vaccines and treatments widely distributed and no remaining expectation the administration can eradicate Covid, health officials over the last several months have increasingly discussed when that phase-out should occur, and what it should look like.

In the most recent round of deliberations, some officials have floated allowing the declaration to expire in October, contingent on the administration successfully rolling out its next round of vaccines and averting a failing surge in cases, two people familiar with the matter said. An end of the emergency declaration this year could also provide a pre-election demonstration that the country has, indeed, entered a new phase of the pandemic fight.

But such a move would likely spark fierce pushback from the health industry and invite criticism from public health groups on the front lines of efforts to combat the virus and vaccinate more Americans.

Some health officials also feared that formally ending the public health emergency would dampen any remaining sense of urgency in Congress to allocate additional money toward the Covid response. The administration’s request for billions more dollars to bolster its stockpiles of vaccines, tests and treatments has stalled for months in the Senate, even as officials warn the funding shortage risks hampering their ability to continue the pandemic fight.

With reporting by Erin Banco.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is leaning into the culture wars as he weighs a 2024 bid.

The Florida governor and rising GOP star on Thursday suspended a Tampa-area elected state attorney who had signed a pledge not to prosecute those who seek out or provide abortions in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the seminal case that protected the right to abortion.

It’s only the latest item on a growing list of moves designed to win over the Republican Party’s conservative base amid speculation that DeSantis could pursue a bid for the White House in the coming years.

“He is sending a message to Republican voters and to the American people that he is a leader, and he is willing to make very difficult decisions that many other elected officials aren’t, and he is willing to fire people who people think are untouchable , and that is crucial for someone that’s going to run for president in 2024,” said Terry Schilling, the president of the conservative grassroots organization, the American Principles Project.

DeSantis’s office billed the Thursday announcement suspending State Attorney Andrew Warren, a rising star in Florida Democratic circles, as official business. But for many, the episode was merely the latest effort by DeSantis to court a growing national conservative base — something he’s done with increasing vigor in recent years.

Thomas Kennedy, a Democratic National Committee member from Florida and an ardent critic of DeSantis, described the governor’s announcement as a “political stunt,” noting how his press secretary Christina Pushaw teased the announcement the night before as the “liberal media meltdown of the year .”

“The evidence is in their words. You had literally his spokesperson calling it the liberal meltdown of the year,” Kennedy said. “They were looking for a reaction, they got their reaction. Everything they do is a stunt, and it’s aimed at Republican voters in early primary states.”

It was a familiar tactic for DeSantis, whose name has shot to the top of the list of potential GOP presidential candidates over the past two years. In that time, he has defied public health officials’ advice on the COVID-19 pandemic, cracked down on public protests, banned the teaching of so-called critical race theory in public schools and picked a high-profile fight with Walt Disney World, one of the state’s biggest tourist draws.

And for many conservatives, including Schilling, that combative approach to politics and business is exactly what makes DeSantis attractive.

“In reality, we’re reaching a point in time where you can’t really separate politics from doing the right thing,” Schilling said. “Ron DeSantis took on Disney, for crying out loud. This is a guy that’s willing to take on powerful interests if it means protecting the people he’s representing.”

Even during his first bid for governor in 2018, DeSantis drew attention for his controversial, no-holds-barred campaign style. One ad at the time showed DeSantis telling his young daughter to “build the wall” as she played with toy blocks. At another point in the campaign, he has faced criticism after he warned Floridians not to “monkey this up” by voting for his Democratic rival Andrew Gillum, who is Black.

Since then, DeSantis has made a name for himself as a hard-charging culture warrior willing to push the limits of his authority to further his vision of conservatism. While that strategy has made him a much-hated villain to Democrats, it’s won him the praise of many Republicans who have begun carefully eyeing him as a successor to former President Trump.

“Ron DeSantis is a master class in how to speak to the base; how to antagonize Democrats in a way that, I think to a lot of Republicans, looks entirely reason-based,” one Republican donor said. “He’s not doing these inconsistent rants like Donald Trump did. He’s methodical, and that’s why he’s coming up as fast as he is.”

And indeed, DeSantis’s political rise appears very real. Not only has he emerged as one of — if not the most — powerful governors in recent Florida history, but he has asserted himself as one of the most influential Republicans in the country at a time when the GOP finds itself out of power in Washington.

DeSantis has raised more than $100 million for his election campaign, while meeting with influential Republican officials and donors far from his home state. Earlier this year, for instance, he met with top Trump donors in South Carolina, stoking speculation that he may be considering a bid for the White House.

He’s also among only a few prospective Republican presidential hopefuls who have declined to rule out a 2024 campaign if Trump decides to mount another bid for the White House. And in the event that Trump doesn’t run again, early polling suggests that DeSantis would be a heavy favorite to win the GOP nomination.

A Harvard CAPS-Harris poll released this week found that, without Trump on the ballot, DeSantis would lead his closest rival, former Vice President Mike Pence, by a 15-point margin.

“I do think that voters are going to have a hard time choosing between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis because they are so similar in what they offer,” Schilling said. “I don’t think there is a DeSantis without Donald Trump opening that huge door for him and showing what you can actually do through the political lens and at the same time, I’m so impressed with Ron DeSantis. He’s stepped up in ways that no other governor has.”

In the meantime, however, DeSantis is waving off questions about his future political ambitions, saying only that he’s focused on winning a second term in the governor’s mansion in November. His chances, at least for now, appear solid: He’s raised far more money than either of his prospective Democratic rivals — Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.) and state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried — and what little public polling there is in the race shows DeSantis with wide leads over both of his potential opponents.

Of course, things could change before Election Day. But DeSantis’s relative comfort with his reelection has given him an opportunity to lay the groundwork for his political future, Kennedy said.

“He’s making a calculation,” Kennedy said. “The Democrats are in disarray in his perspective of him and so, to him, he sees no reason to compromise.”

“He thinks he can win Florida,” Kennedy added. “And at the same time, he’s trying to position himself as the new Republican leader; the new Donald Trump.”

The New York Police Department (NYPD) said its detectives apprehended three men who fired on a party in Queens late Friday night.

In a media briefing, NYPD Chief of Patrol Jeffrey Maddrey said that at approximately 11:35 pm ET members of the violent crime squad were at the area of ​​219th Street and 130th Avenue in Springfield Gardens, Queens.

The detectives were observing a party in the area, including approximately 75 to 100 attendees.

“And, they were observing this party because they believed that there was a potential to be violence involving some of the local street crews,” he explained.

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The plainclothes detectives were in an unmarked car when a group of unknown men entered the same intersection and pulled out at least three firearms.

They shot the guns into the vicinity of the party and the detectives – realizing that danger was imminent – ​​exited their vehicle.

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“Our detectives exchanged gunfire with the group of males and our detectives were able to apprehend three of the males,” Maddrey said.

All three of the men sustained gunshot wounds.

One of the shooters was transported to a local hospital in critical condition and the other two went to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.

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Two of the men were known to the department with “past criminal justice encounters.”

None of the NYPD detectives were injured, but were taken to a local hospital to be checked out for tinnitus and other ailments.

Three firearms were recovered from the scene.

Maddrey told reporters that whether any of the recovered guns are “ghost guns” is “still being determined.”

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Whether any civilians were hit in the incident also remains unknown.

“At this time, we don’t know and it’s still an ongoing investigation,” he said.

The lead is a product of a lopsided campaign so far: Ryan spent more than $8 million on advertisements, including $6.5 million on television since May. But until this week, Vance’s campaign had been AWOL from the airwaves for that entire time. Ryan has also remained far ahead of Vance in the cash dash, in part thanks to an aggressive small-dollar donation campaign.

The outcome of the Ohio race has major stakes for the 2022 midterms. The Senate is finely balanced at 50-50, and Democrats have enjoyed a summer of solid polling in top swing-state races despite the challenging political environment. Adding another seriously competitive, GOP-held seat to the list of battleground races in the fall could tip control of the chamber next year.

Ironically, the spate of negative stories surrounding Vance’s campaign in recent weeks — that he is struggling with fundraising and his own party is questioning whether Ryan is out-hustling him on the airwaves — may have had a net positive effect on Vance’s campaign. Fundraising has picked up since, and national Republicans have stepped in to start buying ads in the race.

On Thursday, Vance joined Trump at his golf club in Bedminster, NJ, where he raised roughly $300,000 holding a golf fundraiser, according to a person with knowledge of the event.

Donors who had remained on the sidelines since the primary have suddenly started writing checks, the Vance ally said. And following a bitter primary fight, Vance’s past opponents are now stepping up to lend their support. Jane Timken just held a fundraiser for Vance, and the campaign is now scheduling additional events with Josh Mandel and Mike Gibbons.

This week, One Nation, the nonprofit part of the outside-spending machine affiliated with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), announced a $3.8 million ad buy in the Ohio Senate race. That follows a nearly $1 million television buy that launched this week as a campaign collaboration between Vance and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

In an interview with POLITICO, Ryan said national Republicans are “panicking” about Vance’s prospects and pushed back on the idea that his internal poll represents his campaign’s apogee.

“We have a lot of room to grow,” Ryan said. “In a lot of ways, this race has signed up.” He added: “It’s just going to be about how many more Republicans and independent voters we can pull in the next three months.”

On that front, Ryan is still making headway. Retiring Sen. Rob Portman‘s former chief of staff John Bridgeland, a former director of George W. Bush’s Domestic Policy Council, is expected to author an endorsement on Ryan’s behalf in a coming Sunday edition of the Cincinnati Enquirer, as well as tap into his state-based Republican rolodex, POLITICO has learned.

“Tim is spending time in every county in Ohio, including heavily Republican counties in Southwest Ohio,” Bridgeland told POLITICO. “He’s really listening to people, he wants to know what their concerns are. And JD Vance is tearing people apart. And the last thing this country needs right now are more people igniting the worst dimensions of human nature.”

Ryan’s internal polling also shows him making inroads with independents: It showed him up 20 points with those voters. According to the poll, Vance also has 85 percent name identification and a 50 percent unfavorable rating after a bruising and expensive Republican primary. Ryan, who enjoyed a smoother ride to his party’s nomination, finds himself with 80 percent name ID and a 36 percent unfavorable rating).

But Republicans on the ground in Ohio and national operatives in DC say they’re confident the liberal congressman will fall off dramatically as Vance hits the air with positive spots and, especially as Ryan begins to face attack ads in the Republican-leaning state

A person familiar with One Nation’s decision to buy ad time in Ohio said “the cash disparity between the two candidates is a concern,” but they’re expecting a Vance win “if he makes up that gap even somewhat.”

Protect Ohio Values, a super PAC that supported Vance in the primary with $15 million from Thiel, will also spend on Vance’s behalf again during the general election, according to a person familiar with the group’s plan. Thiel hasn’t yet said whether he’ll cut another check, but the super PAC has added new donors and intends to spend seven figures on Vance this fall.

“In terms of what’s coming ahead, I believe he’s probably at his high-water mark now,” said Tony Schroeder, chairman of the Putnam County Republican Party, referring to Ryan. “Frankly we’re in a period where people aren’t paying a whole heck of a lot of attention. When the engagement comes around, there’s not going to be anything that’s going to help Tim Ryan.”

Vance has left the campaign trail in Ohio multiple times this summer, including trips to Conservative Political Action Conference events. But besides addressing crowds of activists, the trips have also served as fundraising opportunities. On Friday, before speaking in Dallas at CPAC Texas, Vance headlined the organization’s donor breakfast. He also held one-on-one meetings in the donor-heavy city, as he did when he traveled to Tel Aviv last month for CPAC Israel.

“A lot of this is midsummer bedwetting, to be frank,” said a person close to the campaign, noting how unpopular President Joe Biden remains in Ohio and how closely Republican ads will seek to tie Ryan to the president.

During his speech Friday, Vance urged those in the audience to sign up to make calls and knock doors for his campaign, criticizing Ryan as a “weak, fake congressman.” His comments from him signaled there is still a fight ahead to win voters dissented with Democrats, “whether they are conservatives, whether they vote Republican every time — the people who just want a good life in the country that their grandparents and great-grandparents built .”

A campaign spokesperson said Vance was unavailable for an interview Friday while at CPAC Texas.

Ottawa County Sheriff Steve Levorchick said he met Vance for the first time last month when Vance was traveling the state and visiting individually with law enforcement leaders. Levorchick took office in 2011 as a Democrat, but changed his voter registration last year to Republican. An Obama-Trump county, Ottawa broke from its longtime bellwether status in 2020 to support Trump for a second term.

Levorchick said as of now, he plans to cast his vote this fall for Vance, suggesting there is mistrust for Ryan in some law enforcement circles.

“Is he further right than some people may want? Could be,” Levorchick said of Vance. “But when you only have two candidates to pick from, you have to weigh who’s actually better suited to represent you.”