Your Weekly Washington Updates

Congress Averts a Shutdown; Keeps Government Open Beyond the New Year: On Nov. 15, Congress held off a government shutdown by passing a “laddered” continuing resolution (CR) with strong bipartisan support—the House passed the measure in a 336-95 vote and the Senate passed it in an 87-11 vote. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and GOP leadership’s “laddered” Continuing Resolution (CR) creates different funding deadlines for the 12 fiscal year (FY) 2024 bills. The measure provides a Jan. 19 deadline for four bills (Agriculture-FDA, Energy and Water, Military Construction-VA, and Transportation-HUD) and a Feb. 2 deadline for eight bills (Commerce-Justice-Science, Defense, Financial Services-General Government, Homeland Security, Interior-Environment, Labor-HHS-Education, Legislative Branch, and State and Foreign Operations). While the staggered deadlines result in a more complicated schedule, the stopgap funding measure does not include poison-pill policy riders or additional spending cuts—a concession for conservatives. The measure also does not include any of the proposed supplemental funding request dollars for Israel, Ukraine or Taiwan. The short-term CR will set up yet another spending clash in January.

CMS Releases Final Rule on Skilled Nursing Facilities Ownership and Transparency Requirements: On Wednesday, Nov. 15, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a final rule that would require the disclosure of certain ownership, managerial and other information regarding Medicare skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and Medicaid nursing facilities. Nursing homes must provide more detailed information about their ownership structure and report if they are owned or managed by a private equity firm or real estate investment trust. The final rule also defines both ownership structures. It also increases current data collection requirements and requires facilities to report whether other entities lease or sublease property to nursing homes. The additional data will be made public to increase transparency and allow outside researchers to more closely examine how ownership types correlate with care outcomes.

Year-End Tax Bill Remains a Possibility: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has expressed interest in passing a year-end tax deal; however, this hinges on whether Democrats and Republicans can agree to an extension and expansion of the child tax credit (CTC) and, possibly, affordable housing provisions to balance the extension of several business-related provisions, with a focus on the research and development (R&D) amortization deduction, bonus depreciation and the net business interest deduction:

Biden Administration to Appeal Court Order Ending DACA: On Nov. 9, the White House submitted an appeal of a district court ruling that found that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had acted outside of its authority in implementing the DACA program for undocumented immigrants. The case at hand was originally brought by Texas in 2018, challenging the DACA program on the grounds that it implemented new policy without congressional approval. The court ultimately sided with Texas, a decision that the administration had appealed to the Fifth Circuit. The Fifth Circuit also agreed with Texas; however, in the interim, the government had implemented some technical changes to the DACA program, consideration of which the Fifth Circuit remanded back to the lower district court. The latest decision rules against those changes, upholding the initial logic that the federal DACA program is unlawful. The decision also means that a court order banning the approval of any new DACA requests stands, although the court has allowed the government to process DACA renewal applications.

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