During the week of October 28, 2019, the Senate appropriators passed their four-bill minibus focused on domestic spending, yet they have not start debating the second minibus, which contains the L-HHS spending measures. According to Politico, the debate was postponed by Senate Democrats who believe that the 302(b) allocation for the L-HHS bill is too low. NRHA would also like to see more robust funding, particularly for rural health priorities, in the Senate’s version of the L-HHS bill, but we understand that as the appropriations process is postponed, another Continuing Resolution is likely to be employed to ‘buy’ time. However, there is support from congressional leaders and the White House to have the appropriations bills finalized before the end of the year. So, even with the impeachment inquiry underway, we remain optimistic that progress will be made on passing/finalizing federal funding measures.
