Weekly Healthcare Policy Round-Up

In this week’s Health Policy Round-Up, ALF shares the most up to date news happening in Washington DC.

• The federal government shut down on October 1^st after Congress failed to agree on a new fiscal year 2026 funding bill. The House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution (CR), a temporary funding bill, which would fund the government through November 21^st. The Senate voted on the House-passed CR to fund the government, however did not meet the 60-vote requirement. Additional votes on the CR are expected in the coming days. ALF will continue monitoring the situation.  
• On September 19^th, Representatives Lucy McBath (D-GA-06), Rick W. Allen (R-GA-12), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA-01), Raul Ruiz, M.D. (D-CA-25), and Bob Onder (R-MO-03) reintroduced the Safe Step Act, a bipartisan bill to ensure patients can safely and efficiently access the best treatment available by improving step therapy protocols. Step therapy is a prior-authorization policy that requires patients to try and fail on one or more insurer-preferred treatments before coverage is granted for the medication originally prescribed by their clinician.
• On September 29^th, Dr. Anthony Letai, M.D., Ph.D., was sworn in as the 18th National Cancer Institutes (NCI) Director. Dr. Letai previously served as professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and medical oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and has experience in the study of cell death in cancer, developing treatments, and identifying biomarkers.