Accomplishments
COMMITTEE'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN PREVIOUS CONGRESS
During the 117th Congress, the Committee, under Democratic control, worked expeditiously to modernize our nation's crumbling infrastructure, lower health care and prescription drug costs, make unprecedented investments in climate action, tackle rising inflation, and boost American manufacturing and competitiveness:
- The American Rescue Plan provided the tools and resources necessary to crush the COVID-19 pandemic by ramping up distribution and administration of lifesaving vaccines and implementing a national testing strategy that helped track and contain the virus. The law also provided relief to struggling families by expanding access to affordable health care coverage, providing $5 billion to help keep Americans' lights on throughout the pandemic, and expanding internet connectivity to students and teachers without home internet access;
- The Inflation Reduction Act is the single-largest investment in climate action in American history that will allow us to meet our aggressive climate goals, create nine million new jobs in the clean energy industry, and lower energy costs for American families by about $1,800 per year. The law also provides critical relief to America's seniors by empowering Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices, capping annual out-of-pocket costs for seniors at $2,000, and penalizing companies that unfairly hike prices.
- The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is modernizing our crumbling infrastructure, revitalizing our economy, creating new good paying jobs, enhancing our economic competitiveness, and combating the worsening climate crisis. The law is making historic investments in the electric grid and electric vehicles, replacing lead water service pipes and ensuring every American's access to safe drinking water, and broadband deployment and affordability; and
- The CHIPS and Science Act is bolstering our economy, lowering costs for consumers, creating tens of thousands of good paying American jobs, and ending our dangerous dependence on foreign manufacturers of critical goods.
The Committee moved major legislation that was included in the final fiscal year 2023 omnibus package that will:
- Make permanent a state option allowing states to continue to provide 12 months of continuous coverage during the postpartum period in Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), require children to be provided with 12 months of continuous coverage in Medicaid and CHIP, extend funding for the Money Follows the Person and Spousal Impoverishment programs through fiscal year 2027, and extend funding for CHIP for two years through fiscal year 2029;
- Provide Puerto Rico with five years of increased Medicaid funding and an enhanced federal matching rate, and provide a permanently increased federal matching rate to American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, providing long-term stability and access to health insurance to low-income individuals in the territories;
- Strengthen the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) ability to regulate the safety of cosmetics and personal care products;
- Modernize and strengthen FDA's ability to oversee drugs that are approved through the accelerated approval pathway and require FDA to take a series of actions intended to modernize and improve clinical trials, including increasing the diversity and engagement of trial participants;
- Strengthen, expand, and establish more than 30 critical programs that collectively support mental health care and substance use disorder prevention, care, treatment, peer support, and recovery support services;
- Expand patient access to opioid addiction treatment by making it easier for health care providers to dispense buprenorphine for opioid use disorder maintenance or detoxification treatment;
- Provide important new authorities for improving the Strategic National Stockpile to ensure critical pandemic supplies are operational, resilient, and ready to deploy in times of need;
- Establish the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Health (ARPA-H), an advanced research entity that will accelerate innovation in health and medicine by investing in novel, broadly applicable, high-risk, high-reward research projects;
- Curb the onslaught of counterfeit, defective, and unsafe products available to Americans shopping on third-party e-commerce sites;
- Keep dangerous furniture products that can tip over on small children off the market and out of our homes; and
- Enhance our nation's manufacturing industry to promote America's global economic competitiveness and support our domestic travel and tourism industries.
The Committee's full Activity Report for the 117th Congress can be found HERE.
Accomplishments (117th Congress)