March 9, 2025
Yesterday House Leader Mike Johnson introduced a Continuing Resolution (essentially a stopgap funding bill) that would include an extension of eased telehealth rules until September 30, avoiding a potential disruption in access to care if adopted.
Those relaxed telehealth rules were first introduced by the Center for Medicaid Services during the Covid-19 pandemic when physical doctor offices were closed. Congress has extended those telehealth rules several times, but a permanent solution has remained elusive.The stopgap bill would also extend hospital-at-home waivers that enable facilities to offer more care at home. It would, as well, extend funding for community health centers, alongside a delay in funding cuts to safety-net hospitals.The Affordable Care Act called for such cuts, expecting such hospitals wouldn’t have to offer less care without getting paid as millions more got covered through the law, but Congress has never let them go into effect.
Here’s more from Politico:
Just days out from Friday’s midnight shutdown deadline (3/14), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) unveiled a Continuing Resolution that would extend current funding levels until September — but the path to keep the government’s lights on is far from certain. The funding extension was released yesterday afternoon after weeks of intraparty haggling, but Johnson can only afford to lose two GOP votes if all Democrats oppose the bill as expected, POLITICO’s Meredith Lee Hill and Jennifer Scholtes report.
What’s in: Johnson’s bill “would increase defense spending by about $6 billion over current budgets, while non-defense funding would fall by a total of about $13 billion. It fulfills a Trump administration request for additional ICE funding to help carry out deportations. The stopgap also maintains a freeze on more than $20 billion in special IRS funding,” Meredith and Jennifer write.
What’s not: The spending cuts would not touch benefits such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The CR also doesn’t include an expected bipartisan measure to “avert cuts for doctors who treat Medicare patients — a blow to Republicans who had pushed for the changes that also could risk alienating members whose support will be needed to pass the legislation,” POLITICO’s Ben Leonard, Robert King and Daniel Payne report.
So what’s next? Johnson has said he’s aiming to pass the CR as soon as Tuesday, with hopes of sending members home early and sending the bill to the Senate: “That could keep the Senate, Democrats in particular, from trying to amend the stopgap and send it back to the House before a potential government shutdown that would start just after midnight” on Friday, Meredith writes.
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STATE BUDGET
Gov. Hochul working on $252 billion budget deal
Amid political challenges on the state and federal level, Gov. Kathy Hochul is also trying to close a deal on her $252 billion spending package known as the state budget.
The April 1 deadline is fast approaching, and the Democratic-led state legislature is poised to release its own counterproposals.
What You Need To Know
Amid political challenges on the state and federal level, Gov. Kathy Hochul is also trying to close a deal on her $252 billion spending package known as the state budget. The April 1 deadline is fast approaching, and the Democratic-led state legislature is poised to release its own counterproposals.
Hochul wants to cut taxes, fund MTA projects and redistribute previously collected sales tax dollars in personal check form. Also on the table: school funding, impacts of federal employee layoffs and a possible congestion pricing reversal.
“The emphasis on affordability, it’s a good thing to be focused on,” Patrick Orecki, director of State Studies at the fiscal watchdog group the Citizens Budget Commission, said.
Hochul wants to:
- Cut taxes for middle and lower class New Yorkers
- Redistribute previously collected sales tax dollars in personal check form
- Fund future MTA projects
- Change involuntary commitment standards and deadlines for prosecutors to hand over evidence
“Because of the increase in crime over the past couple of years, this has changed people’s attitudes about this dramatically,” Hochul said on March 4 during a press conference in Albany.
Budget experts warn Hochul must start planning for factors outside her control.
“The state’s budget is made up, more than a third of it, from federal funds,” Orecki said. “So, direct federal money to the state for its big spending programs, especially in healthcare. So any changes in Medicaid or the essential plan or things that the state relies on a lot of federal funding for would completely change the state’s fiscal outlook.”
Also on the table: school funding, impacts of federal employee layoffs and a possible congestion pricing reversal.
“At least the president didn’t declare ‘drop dead to the city’ —although, wait, actually he did. That’s exactly what Donald Trump did a couple weeks ago when he says that he’s killed congestion pricing ‘long live the king,’” Hochul said on Thursday at the Citizens Budget Commission’s annual gala.
Convincing state legislators to greenlight Hochul’s plan to give New Yorkers checks is also not easy.
“I don’t think that’s the best bang for our buck. I think we can use that excess sales tax revenue in other places. There are one-shots we can fill here. I don’t think that’s the best way we can use the money, but we’re open to negotiation,” Democratic State Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi from Queens said.
The governor must also decide: will she or won’t she prioritize state legislation to curb Mayor Eric Adams’s power over City Hall.
“I still believe there’s a lot of people that are very concerned about the influence of Washington on our city,” Hochul said on March 4.
Striking correctional officers demanding a reevaluation of the state’s controversial HALT ACT and multiple inmate deaths have also forced Hochul to consider action to clean up the prison system. Meanwhile, lawmakers are expected to reveal their counter proposals next week.