Welcome back, Congress

David Ermer–Congress, Federal employment benefits, Medical / Rx research, OPM, U.S. Healthcare–

From Washington, DC,

  • The AP summarizes the issues facing Congress this month.
    • “The most urgent task for Congress is to avoid a government shutdown on Sept. 30, when federal funding runs out. And it’s so far unclear if Republicans and Democrats will be able to agree on how to do that.
    • “Congress will have to pass a short-term spending measure to keep the government funded for a few weeks or months while they try to finish the full-year package. But Republicans will need Democratic votes to pass an extension, and Democrats will want significant concessions.
      Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer’s vote with Republicans to avoid a shutdown in March prompted furious backlash within his party.”
  • Roll Call explains Congress’s expected activities this week.
  • Speaking of which, the House Appropriations Committee will mark up the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill on Wednesday September 3 at 10:30 am ET. This is the bill that funds OPM and the FEHB Program, among other items.
  • Bloomberg Law adds,
    • “House Republicans are taking a middle-of-the road approach to funding the federal health department by making deeper cuts than their Senate counterparts but granting only some of President Donald Trump’s wishes.
    • House appropriators unveiled their version of the appropriations bill for the Health and Human Services Department on Monday, which provides the department $108 billion in discretionary funding, cutting $7 billion—or 6%—from the previous year.
    • Read the bill text here and summary here.
    • This is lower than the $116 billion proposed in the Senate, but still higher than the $94.7 billion in Trump’s budget request.
  • Federal News Network reports,
    • “Most civilian federal employees will see a 1% pay increase in 2026, according to a pay plan the White House quietly transmitted to Congress, with one big exception: Law enforcement officers will see bigger raises, though it’s not yet clear exactly which ones.
    • “For the majority of workers, the annual increase is the smallest it’s been since 2021, when President Trump also directed a 1% increase during his last year in office. Presidents are required to submit an “alternative pay plan” by Sept. 1 of each year in order to keep larger formulaic raises from taking effect the following year under the Federal Employee Pay Comparability Act (FEPCA).
    • “However, a yet-to-be-determined number of federal law enforcement officers will get a 3.8% raise next year, in line with the increase military members will receive in 2026.
    • “In the same message to Congress, the president said the law enforcement raise is meant “to increase recruitment and retention in critical law enforcement roles and to ensure our great Federal law enforcement officers are treated fairly.”
    • “But it will be up to federal agencies and the Office of Personnel Management to determine which employees will be eligible for the larger law enforcement raise. Starting on Tuesday, OPM will begin consulting with agencies to identify “categories” of law enforcement personnel who will receive it.”

From the public health and medical research front,

  • NBC News reports,
    • “Six deaths from rabies have been reported over the last 12 months in the U.S., the highest number in years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From rabid skunks in Kentucky to gray foxes in Arizona and raccoons on Long Island, wild animals in more than a dozen places across the U.S. have experienced a rise in the deadly disease, at least partly driven by shrinking natural habitats and better surveillance.
    • “We are currently tracking 15 different likely outbreaks,” said Dr. Ryan Wallace, who leads the rabies team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Areas with outbreaks include Nassau County, New York, which issued a health threat over rabid animals last month, as well as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and parts of Alaska, Arizona, California, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, North Carolina, Oregon and Vermont.
    • “There are parts of the United States where it does seem like we’re getting more calls and more reports,” Wallace said, noting an increase in rabid foxes in the West and rabid bats across the country. “Whether those numbers are truly significant increases, we can only tell at the end of the year. But right now, at peak rabies season, it does seem like activity is higher.”
  • The Wall Street Journal reports,
    • “Novo Nordisk said its blockbuster Wegovy weight-loss drug cuts the risk of heart attack, stroke or death by 57% compared with Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound.
    • “The Danish pharmaceutical giant said Sunday that the study suggests the heart-protective benefits of semaglutide—the active ingredient in Wegovy—may not be the same for all GLP-1 drugs such as tirzepatide, which is the active ingredient in Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound.
    • “The real-world study used evidence gathered from actual patient experiences rather than a controlled trial, it said.
  • Per Medscape
    • “A noticeable deficit of highly unsaturated lipids — including omega-3 fatty acids — found in women with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) but not in cognitively healthy women is linked to worse cognition and biomarkers of neurodegeneration and inflammation, new research showed. 
    • “Investigators found no significant difference in lipid profiles in men with AD compared to healthy peers, and the effects of unsaturated phospholipids on AD were not mediated by cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or apolipoprotein B.
    • “The study reveals that Alzheimer’s lipid biology is different between the sexes, opening new avenues for research,” senior author Cristina Legido-Quigley, PhD, from King’s College London, UK, said in a statement. 
    • “Our study suggests that women should make sure they are getting omega fatty acids in their diet — through fatty fish or via supplements. However, we need clinical trials to determine if shifting the lipid composition can influence the biological trajectory of Alzheimer’s Disease,” Legido-Quigley said. 
    • “The study was published online August 20 in Alzheimer’s & Dementia.”
  • and
    • “Current US heart failure guidelines that use a single cut point for natriuretic peptides (NPs) can underestimate the risk for the disease for people with obesity, according to a study published recently in Circulation: Heart Failure.
    • “The 2022 joint guidelines from the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, and the Heart Failure Society of America added NP as a biomarker for higher risk, with a threshold of 125 pg/mL to up-classify individuals from stage A (at-risk) to stage B (pre-heart failure).
    • “But concentrations of the proteins typically are lower in people with obesity, said Jennifer Ho, MD, a cardiologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, so she wondered whether clinicians who follow the recommendations might be underestimating the risk for heart failure in their patients with obesity.”
  • Consumer Reports, writing in the Washington Post, tells us about “Labneh, a Middle Eastern dairy food, has a tangy flavor and health benefits similar to that of yogurt.”
  • “A Wall Street Journal article explains what it means to give up ultra processed foods and another informs us
    • “Fiber-Packed Foods Are Hitting Store Shelves. Be Careful, Doctors Say. Researchers link fiber used in processed foods with inflammation and other health problems.” 

From the U.S. healthcare business front,

  • Modern Healthcare reports,
    • The healthcare industry continues to face rapid transformation, with financial, technological and operational pressures reshaping how organizations deliver care. CommerceHealthcare® has identified key mid-year developments that are influencing strategic decision-making across the sector. The year to date can be characterized by the following:
      • Financial update
      • Fresh uncertainties and persistent “structural” issues cloud the industry’s generally improving financial health.
      • There is ongoing commitment to automation and technology investment.
      • Patient affordability pressures fuel the need for financial assistance programs.
      • Migration from status quo operational models to substantially new ones is paramount.
    • A scan of leading metrics reveals both the progress and the prevailing challenges:
      • Cash. Days cash on hand varies widely across health systems.
      • Profitability: Through April, hospital margins are running near or above 3% versus the mid-1% range throughout 2024.[1] Smaller hospitals continue to struggle in 2025, as do physician groups. The median investment (loss) per physician full-time equivalent stands at an annualized $347,240, a 4.8% increase compared to 2024, and a 16.3% jump from 2023.”[2]
      • Revenue/volume: Larger hospitals experienced 24 consecutive months of year-over-year (YOY) growth through April in gross operating, inpatient and outpatient revenues.
  • HR Dive tells us,
    • “When faced with an overly complicated or long application, 57% of job candidates have abandoned it in the middle of the process due to frustration, according to an Aug. 14 report from LiveCareer.
    • “On top of that, 41% of job seekers said they think fewer than a quarter of their applications make it to a real person, which adds to their frustration during an increasingly tough labor market.
    • “The biggest job search frustrations stem from a lack of communication and confusing application processes, leading many candidates to give up on the job search,” Jasmine Escalera, a career expert for LiveCareer, wrote in the report.
    • “The majority of U.S. workers believe the application process should take less than 30 minutes, according to a survey by Employ, Inc. A third also said they’d quit an application if it took too long.”