G2G Bio Bulletin – May 18, 2026
Updates from Washington
Congress:
- FY 2027 Appropriations & Budget Requests:
- Federal agency leaders continued to appear before congressional committees to scrutinize budget requests. This includes Secretary Hegseth’s appearance on Tuesday before the House and Senate Appropriations Committees’ Defense Subcommittees.
- On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee by a party line vote of 32-28 advanced the Commerce Justice and Science appropriations bill, which funds NIST among other entities. It will next be voted on by the entire chamber.
- On Friday, the entire House passed the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill by an overwhelming bipartisan margin of 400-15. This is the first of the twelve appropriations bills to be completed by the chamber.
- Other Legislation & Hearings:
- The House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee has advanced to full committee consideration a bipartisan bill, led by former Subcommittee Chair Buddy Carter (R-GA) requiring the FDA to implement the FDA Modernization Act 2.0, to ensure that drugs can be developed with alternatives to animal models, such as new approach methodologies. The Subcommittee also advanced bills to reauthorize programs on: breast cancer prevention, Alzheimer’s care provider training, ALS therapies, and stem cell research.
- The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report on Tuesday, indicating that Congress has review powers to constrain CMS' implementation of the Wasteful and Inappropriate Services Reduction (WISeR) Model, that centers on using AI/ML in Medicare decision making. Earlier this year, a coalition of House Democrats led by Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA) indicated to Appropriations Committee leadership that they intend to use the FY 2027 process to do just that.
- The House Oversight Committee, is advancing a bill led by its Chairman James Comer (R-KY), that would provide the Treasury greater authority to stop payments to programs, including Medicaid, with an "elevated risk” of fraud.
- The Chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, John Mooleanar has introduced the Securing Innovation and Research from Adversaries Act, which aims to further bolster government-wide prohibitions on the use of federal research funds for foreign collaborations with entities and individuals on U.S. government blacklists, including those in China.
- The Senate Aging Committee, as a follow up to its series of hearings on pharmaceutical supply chain vulnerabilities, have written to pharmaceutical distributors about their purchases from facilities that are exempted from FDA import bans.
Administration & Agencies:
- FDA: In the past week, the agency has again faced a significant shakeup of its leadership.
- Marty Makary resigned on Tuesday. Kyle Diamantas the Acting Deputy Commissioner for Human Food, will serve as Acting Commissioner. No permanent replacement has been named yet.
- Yesterday, it was announced that several officials close to Makary, including acting CDER Director Tracy Beth Høeg are also departing the agency. She will be replaced in the interim by Deputy Director Michael Davis.
- Karim Mikhail, an industry veteran will take over as Acting Director of CBER, from Katherine Szarama, who had been in the position a little over a week.
- CMS:
- The agency will halt new hospice and home health providers from applying to Medicare for a six-month period, which the Administration has indicated is part of their broader efforts to crack down on fraud. Separately, the HHS Inspector General has indicated it will conduct an audit of all state Medicaid Fraud Control Units, and has indicated that the federal government will withhold funds for noncompliance. The Administration has already indicated it will defer $1.3 B in Medicaid payments to California.
- The agency published a final rule, permitting long-term high-deductible health plans onto ACA exchanges, pairing it with anti-fraud measures and higher payment burdens on states if they provide services in addition to essential health benefits.
- White House, Other HHS Divisions & Departments:
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Opioid Use Disorder: HHS will be removing its online tool that helps individuals with OUD access buprenorphine treatment, as part of its broader effort to reduce excess medicalization.
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Maternal Health: The White House launched Moms.gov, as a centralized resource for expecting mothers and families.
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IVF: The Administration has proposed through a Department of Labor rule, a benefits category to facilitate employers to provide fertility benefits to employees, including IVF.
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Reminder: Don’t miss the monthly GBG Report call every third Thursday of the month at 12 pm ET where the team discusses the latest federal life sciences funding opportunities. G2G has raised $612M and is eager to share our expertise to help companies grow and accelerate bringing innovations to patients.