Tom Howell Jr.

Alex Azar says prescription drug rebate plan gives savings to patients

The Trump administration on Thursday said it wants prescription-drug rebates that are extended to obscure middlemen in the supply chain to be passed directly to patients instead.

January 31, 2019

Judge: DOJ faces ‘uphill battle’ in explaining IRS-worker recall amid shutdown

A federal judge warned the Trump administration Thursday it faces an "uphill battle" in justifying the IRS's decision to recall tens of thousands of workers, without pay, to process refunds during filing season despite an ongoing shutdown at the time.

January 31, 2019

Mike Pence makes case for border wall in speech at DEA

Vice President Mike Pence drew a straight line Thursday between federal efforts to intercept drugs along the U.S.-Mexico border and President Trump's demands for wall funding from Capitol Hill.

January 31, 2019

California blames drop in new Obamacare enrollees on gutted mandate

California signed up roughly the same amount of Obamacare customers for 2019 as it did last year, officials said Wednesday, though they blamed a sharp drop in new enrollees on the GOP's decision to gut the "individual mandate" to hold insurance.

January 30, 2019

House Democrats press insulin makers on pricing

House Democrats told major drugmakers Wednesday to explain why the price of their insulin keeps rising and why they cannot offer a cheaper product.

January 30, 2019

Congress decries soaring drug prices, pledges solutions

Congressional committee chairmen from both parties said Tuesday they'll force pharmaceutical companies to publicly prove they need to charge high prices for popular drugs such as insulin, as they warned life-saving medicine is slipping out of reach for many Americans.

January 29, 2019

Federal agencies, museums regain footing after lengthy shutdown

Federal agencies and museums worked to clear their backlogs, restock gift shops and otherwise reboot Monday after Congress ended the longest government shutdown in history.

January 28, 2019

Government shutdown recovery may take years

President Trump's decision to temporarily reopen the government with Congress may be good news for Washington, but federal employees and businesses say they'll be picking up the pieces from the longest shutdown in U.S. history for quite a while.

January 27, 2019

Workers, businesses pick up pieces from lengthy shutdown

President Trump's push to temporarily reopen the government with Congress may be good news for Washington, but federal employees and businesses said Friday they'll continue to pick up the pieces after the longest shutdown in history.

January 25, 2019

Nancy Pelosi: State of the Union is ‘not planned’ right now

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday said a date has not yet been worked out for President Trump's State of the Union Address and that those negotiations will take place once the government is open.

January 25, 2019

Senate leaders aim to speed bill through to reopen government

Senate leaders on Friday said they hope to send President Trump a short-term funding bill that will reopen the government by day's end, after Mr. Trump said he would support a measure to fund the government for three weeks while broader negotiations over border security take place.

January 25, 2019

Trial therapy for Ebola shows promise in NIH trial

An investigational treatment that stifles Ebola proteins is safe and easy to use, the National Institutes of Health announced Friday, underscoring its potential in the fight against a thorny epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

January 25, 2019

Government shutdown effects mount as shuttered agencies exhaust workarounds, funding

Although the Trump administration has taken extraordinary steps to try to blunt the effects of the partial shutdown, agencies say they are running out of workarounds and the effects are piling up.

January 24, 2019

OPM to federal agencies: Make shutdown less painful; Consider telecommutes, flexible hours

The federal personnel office told agencies Wednesday they should, wherever possible, make the shutdown as painless as possible for "essential" employees forced to work without pay, from allowing them to work remotely to giving them a more flexible start or end to their workday.

January 23, 2019

Federal workers protest at Senate offices, decry ‘temper tantrum’

Federal workers protested the government shutdown on Capitol Hill Wednesday with cheeky signs and 33 minutes of silence to mark each day they've been furloughed or forced to work without pay.

January 23, 2019

Muriel Bowser, D.C. mayor, offers zero-interest loans to workers affected by shutdown

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Wednesday the District will offer zero-interest loans of up to $5,000 to people who might not be able to pay their mortgage this month because of the partial federal government shutdown.

January 23, 2019

More than half of Americans support government-run health care: poll

More than half of the public supports a Bernie Sanders-style plan that replaces private coverage with a sweeping, "Medicare for all" style program that imposes a nationwide plan, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

January 23, 2019

Democrats work to show federal workers’ pain during government shutdown

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is in Washington overseeing the drama on the partial government shutdown, but his constituents back home are about to get a taste as billboards pop up this week imploring him to bring the episode to a conclusion.

January 22, 2019

Mark Warner to Trump agencies: Explain piecemeal recall of workers

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia asked the Trump administration Tuesday to justify its piecemeal recall of federal workers amid the partial government shutdown, saying he fears the White House is picking "winners and losers" for political expediency.

January 22, 2019

Congo struggles to contain Ebola outbreak

Ebola infections have slowed inside the initial center of the Democratic Republic of Congo's outbreak, but the disease is marching south toward major cites, opening a critical new stage in the epidemic that's already the second worst on record.

January 21, 2019