‘Woke’ Panel Firings Expected at HHS: Starting Line

‘Woke’ Cancer Panel Firings Coming

You can be fired for a lot of reasons. Apparently being “woke” is now one of them.

We’re watching to see if Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ousts members of an HHS advisory board on preventive health measures for exactly that reason, as the Wall Street Journal reported Friday that he intends to do.

An HHS spokesperson said no final decision has been made about the panel that recommends the best preventive services, including cancer screenings, behavioral counseling, and medications for the federal government.

The board would be the second that the HHS secretary shakes up. He fired the 17-member CDC panel on immunization practices in June, replacing them with people critical of vaccines as part of his efforts to “Make America Healthy Again.” Read More

Another part of HHS we’re tracking for change: A decades-old program that pays people injured from immunization.

Kennedy says he’s brought in a team to clean up and expand the agency’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, which aims to protect drugmakers from litigation to ensure Americans get vaccinated against preventable diseases.

But observers say many of the actions of the secretary, who has a well-known history of vaccine skepticism, appear to undercut the program. Ian Lopez reports on what shifts could be coming. Read More

See Also:

• Democrats Seek to Scrap GOP’s Medicaid Cost-Sharing Requirements
• FDA Probes Death of Boy in Brazil on Sarepta’s Elevidys
• Lawmakers Press FDA to Target Compounded, Fake Weight-Loss Drugs

The Senate’s Nomination Grind

We’re watching the Senate this week for which nominees lawmakers will advance or confirm — and how they secure those victories.

They’ll kick things off with floor votes on David Wright and Earl Matthews, who are up for Nuclear Regulatory Commission member and Department of Defense general counsel roles, respectively.

Emil Bove, Trump’s controversial pick who is up for a lifetime appointment to a federal appellate court, could also be confirmed this week.

Some members are offering their support for nominees in exchange for other concessions.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) helped advance Mike Waltz’s nomination for UN ambassador last week in exchange for the release of $75 million in foreign aid, Lillianna Byington writes in Congress Tracker for Bloomberg Government subscribers today.

Senators are also hoping to advance at least the fiscal 2026 Military Construction-VA and Agriculture-FDA funding bills before they go on recess next week, Ken Tran reports in the Budget Brief for BGOV readers.

See Also: Wisconsin Senators Attempt Bipartisan Judicial Pick With Trump

How Well Do You Know Washington — Spending Edition

Now that Trump’s package of tax breaks, Medicaid cuts, and selected spending boosts is the law (Public Law 119-21) and no longer just a big bill, we’re wondering how much of the coverage of the measure’s big winners made an impression.

This week’s question: Can you put these new spending levels in order, highest to lowest:

A) Air and missile defense
B) Barriers and other infrastructure along the border
C) Coast Guard
D) ICE detention infrastructure and personnel
E) Military shipbuilding

Scroll down for the answer.

Eye on the Economy

All eyes will be on the Fed this week as it holds a two-day policy meeting under pressure from President Donald Trump to lower interest rates. The Fed is expected to leave its benchmark rate unchanged this week, but we’ll be watching for dissents from Fed Governor Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, Fed Vice Chair for Supervision. Waller and Bowman, both Trump appointees, have expressed concern that rates are too high.

It’s looking more likely that the central bank might lower rates at its September policy meeting, depending on economic data. In any case, Powell’s post-meeting press conference July 30, after the Fed issues its post-meeting statement, will be appointment television.

The Fed won’t be the only big economic newsmaker this week — the monthly jobs report is due out Aug. 1. Read More

Did You Ace the Quiz?

As our senior budget reporter Jack Fitzpatrick explained, the military and the Department of Homeland Security were two of the biggest winners of the recently enacted law providing more than $300 billion to carry out Trump’s top initiatives.

Give yourself a star if you picked Option D-ICE for the largest level in that short list of choices. Here’s how some of that law’s funding was distributed:

D) ICE detention infrastructure and personnel — $75 billion
B) Barriers and other infrastructure along the border — $46.6 billion
E) Military shipbuilding — $28.2 billion
C) Coast Guard —$24.6 billion
A) Air and missile defense —$23.7 billion

Before You Go

An R+D Windfall: Giant US tech and drug companies like Alphabet and Pfizer stand to save billions a year from a major new tax break on research and development costs, Michael Rapoport reports. The change, part of Republicans’ tax-and-spending law enacted this month, allows companies to deduct their domestic R&D costs immediately instead of stretching them over five years. Read More

US, EU Reach Tariff Deal: The US and European Union agreed on a hard-fought deal that will see the bloc face 15% tariffs on most of its exports, including automobiles, staving off a trade war that could have delivered a hammer blow to the global economy. Read More

• Meanwhile, US and Chinese officials are meeting today to extend their tariff detente beyond a mid-August deadline, and haggle over other ways to further defuse trade tensions. Read More

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