Maine rebuffs HHS order on transgender athletes
With Erin Schumaker and Ruth Reader
Driving The Day
MAINE VS. HHS — The governing body that oversees Maine's school sports is rebuffing efforts by HHS' Office for Civil Rights to penalize it for policies allowing transgender girls to play on women's teams.
The Maine Principals' Association argues that HHS has no jurisdiction over the group and the issue should instead be resolved through the state legislature and Congress.
'MPA receives no direct or indirect federal funding, so it is not beholden to Title IX enforcement by HHS and therefore cannot be included in any future investigations or litigation,' MPA said in a Wednesday statement. The group's counsel made the same argument in a letter to HHS on Tuesday.
How we got here: HHS said Monday it would give Maine 10 days to sign an agreement to bar transgender students from women's sports or risk enforcement action from the Justice Department, POLITICO's Bianca Quilantan reports.
According to a statement by HHS, federal officials say the Maine Department of Education, the Maine Principals' Association and Greely High School, which had a transgender student compete on a women's team, violated Title IX, the anti-sex discrimination law, with their policies that allow transgender students to compete on girls' sports teams.
HHS had launched a brief investigation into Maine's policies on transgender students in sports on Feb. 21 after President Donald Trump threatened Maine's federal funding and singled out Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, and her state's policies. Mills refused to say whether she would comply with his executive order barring transgender girls from girls' sports and had vowed to meet the Trump administration in court.
The Maine attorney general's office said it was reviewing the proposed agreement. Greely High School did not immediately respond to requests for comment. HHS also did not respond to a request for comment.
The bigger picture: President Donald Trump has issued several executive orders restricting the rights of transgender people, including a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, which has been blocked in court, and a ban on transgender girls on women's sports teams.
HHS has already removed language that included transgender and nonbinary people from its policies.
WELCOME TO THURSDAY PULSE. Happy 'Severance' finale to all who celebrate. Send your tips, scoops and feedback to ccirruzzo@politico.com and khooper@politico.com and follow along @ChelseaCirruzzo and @Kelhoops.
Global Health
INSIDE THE USAID PLANS — State Department officials have proposed overhauling the U.S. foreign aid and development structure, including curbing its focus on global health, POLITICO's Nahal Toosi and Daniel Lippman report.
The plan comes as the official who oversaw the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development heads for the door, Daniel reports with POLITICO's Carmen Paun.
Pete Marocco has overseen USAID while leading foreign assistance at the State Department since early February. The administration has effectively shuttered USAID during that time, with most employees laid off or put on administrative leave, while its old headquarters in the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington was leased to Customs and Border Protection, a division of the Department of Homeland Security. The Trump administration has terminated most of the grants and contracts USAID managed.
Marocco will continue to oversee foreign aid at the State Department.
What's next for USAID? According to the plan, laid out in a document obtained by POLITICO:
— USAID would be changed to the U.S. Agency for International Humanitarian Assistance and embedded within the State Department.
— 'Politically oriented' programs the Trump administration pursues would be moved under the State Department. Examples of such programs include promoting democracy and religious freedom, empowering women and fighting human trafficking. Many of those efforts already exist under the State Department, but it's possible that similar efforts at USAID or other agencies and departments could be moved to State.
It was not immediately clear whether Secretary of State Marco Rubio or other senior Trump administration officials have signed off on the proposal, and some changes, such as placing one agency under another, likely will require congressional authorization.
Spokespeople for the State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In Congress
DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS — Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Pete Welch (D-Vt.) will host a forum next week to address how slashing research at the NIH could affect Americans with cancer, Alzheimer's and other diseases.
The event is in response to a tumultuous month at the agency and will feature former NIH leadership, researchers whose work has been impacted and patients who participated in the agency's clinical trial patients.
Since early February, the Trump administration has moved to cut funding for administrative and facilities expenses at NIH-backed universities, slowed the grant process by canceling advisory council meetings, fired advisory board members and kept rank-and-file NIH employees in limbo by firing and rehiring them.
'Donald Trump and Elon Musk aren't just gutting research, they are putting cures and treatments further out of reach for Americans,' Baldwin, ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies that oversees NIH, said in a statement.
'We're bringing together patients and researchers to show this administration who is impacted by their reckless cuts.'
What's next: The forum is Wednesday, March 26, at 2:30 p.m., with guests to be announced early next week.
AROUND THE AGENCIES
FIRST IN PULSE: AHRQ PLEAS — The former director of the Agency for Health Research and Quality defended the agency's role in improving patient care — a supposed goal of the Trump administration — in a letter to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Ruth reports.
The letter follows reporting from POLITICO that workers at the Department of Health and Human Services brace for a massive reorganization. AHRQ is among several agencies within HHS that the Trump administration is eyeing for job cuts.
The letter from Robert Otto Valdez explains that AHRQ focuses exclusively on care delivery improvement, innovation and advancement and assists agencies such as CMS and the FDA.
'Its unique [research and development] contributions to the economy's health sector should not be underestimated,' wrote Valdez.
HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
IN THE STATES
HOCHUL ON KENNEDY: 'VACCINE SKEPTIC' — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul pushed back on HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy's comments that vaccination is a 'personal decision' amid rising measles cases, POLITICO's Maya Kaufman reports.
During her Wednesday press conference, the Democrat referred to him as 'the nation's leading vaccination skeptic' and urged New Yorkers to protect themselves and their communities by respecting the expertise of doctors and researchers on the safety of the measles vaccine, which dates to 1963 and also protects against mumps and rubella.
She slammed Kennedy's 'irresponsible' claims about cod liver oil and his framing of vaccination as a 'personal' decision, warning of the havoc that measles could wreak on New York as a result of fear and disinformation.
'A personal decision is what are you going to do tonight for dinner? What are your weekend plans? What's for lunch?' Hochul said during a press conference. 'But when it comes to the overall health of our state and the people we love, it's much larger than a personal decision.'
An HHS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on Hochul's remarks.
Why it matters: The state has confirmed four cases of measles so far this year, including three in New York City. State Health Commissioner James McDonald said they all appear to be unrelated.
Names in the News
Jeff Last is now senior health policy adviser for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. He previously was health policy adviser for Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).
Amy DeMaria is joining Rational 360 as managing director and co-head of the healthcare practice. She was most recently the senior vice president of communications and marketing at Inspire, an online health community.
WHAT WE'RE READING
The New York Times reports on how federal staffing cuts impact food safety.
Reuters reports on Purdue Pharma's new bankruptcy plan for its opioid settlement.
The Wall Street Journal reports on the tension between pharmaceutical and telehealth companies over the sale of knock-off weight-loss drugs.
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