Latest news with #VernBuchanan
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
GOP Eyes Pharma Tax Hike, Nixing Drug Price Deal for Trump Bill
(Bloomberg) -- House Republicans are considering nixing a Medicaid drug pricing plan floated by President Donald Trump and fiercely opposed by the pharmaceutical industry as the party pushes to strike a massive tax and spending deal in the coming days. Is Trump's Plan to Reopen the Notorious Alcatraz Prison Realistic? Vail to Borrow Muni Debt to Ease Ski Resort Town Housing Crunch Iceland Plans for a More Volcanic Future As Trump Reshapes Housing Policy, Renters Face Rollback of Rights But drugmakers may not be totally off the hook. Lawmakers have separately discussed eliminating a tax deduction for pharmaceutical advertising, Representative Vern Buchanan, the chairman of the House tax committee's health subcommittee, said Thursday. It's unclear whether that provision will be in the final tax cut package. 'I know it's been brought up, so I don't know where it landed,' Buchanan said. Representative Richard Hudson of North Carolina, a senior Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, signaled Thursday that the drug pricing plan may be scrapped. The idea, first floated last week by the White House as a way to help pay for the president's tax cut plan, blindsided the pharmaceutical industry and has prompted a furious lobbying campaign. Drugmakers said it could cost them $1 trillion over the next decade. While lawmakers may be poised to reject Trump's drug pricing plan, the president is unlikely to abandon the concept entirely. During his first term, he pursued regulatory avenues to accomplish similar goals, and could do so again. Bringing foreign drug pricing into US government programs could hurt drugmakers' revenues. The potential elimination of the TV ad deduction, meanwhile, could get backing of some in the Trump administration. Pharmaceutical ads have come under special scrutiny as most other countries don't allow drugmakers to run television ads, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called to ban the television ads entirely. Currently, pharmaceutical companies can deduct advertising costs as expenses on their taxes, which is standard for other industries, too. Greg Murphy, another Republican member of the Ways & Means committee, introduced legislation to eliminate the pharma ad tax deduction last month. In announcing the legislation, Murphy said the television ads lead to 'inappropriate prescribing practices.' US Border Towns Are Being Ravaged by Canada's Furious Boycott Pre-Tariff Car Buying Frenzy Leaves Americans With a Big Debt Problem Made-in-USA Wheelbarrows Promoted by Trump Are Now Made in China Maybe AI Slop Is Killing the Internet, After All Inside the Dizzying Chaos of Running a Freight Business Under Trump ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Return to Freedom Applauds Lawmakers' Support of Fertility Control to Better Manage Wild Horses
LOMPOC, Calif., May 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation on Monday applauded lawmakers for supporting the use of fertility control to manage wild horses and burros on more humanely. Reps. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., David Schweikert, R-Ariz., Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., sent a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum asking for him to support reforms to wild horse and burro management with a greater focus on the implementation of fertility control by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). "We're grateful to Reps. Buchanan, Schweikert, Fitzpatrick and Ciscomani for calling for the long overdue implementation of proven, safe and humane fertility control in wild horse management," said Neda DeMayo, president of Return to Freedom (RTF), a national nonprofit wild horses and burro advocacy organization. "The BLM's own history shows that remaining fixated only on capture-and-removal management will not succeed. To create meaningful, sustainable change, the agency must use fertility control to stabilize herd growth so that removals, which decimate family bands and herds, can be brought to an end." Specifically, the congressmen asked Burgum to support: increased use of humane, reversible fertility control by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), budget measures that "significantly reallocate" BLM wild horse funding to fertility control, and the upholding of congressional directives and Interior Department policy for non-lethal management. RTF has worked closely with Buchanan for many years on the effort to pass a lasting ban on horse slaughter and the export of American horses for slaughter. In February, he and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.) reintroduced that legislation, the Save America's Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act. The recent letter from Buchanan and his colleagues emphasizes the continued protection of wild horses and burros and fiscal responsibility. The BLM has never spent as much as 4 percent of the wild horse budget on fertility control despite growing calls from Congress, public lands stakeholders and the public for its use. BLM has instead tried and failed for decades to control herd populations by capture and removal. The agency estimates that there are about 73,000 wild horses and burros on the rangelands it manages. Nearly as many — 65,000 — are now warehoused in off-range government holding facilities. "We must do better by America's wild horses and burros," DeMayo said. "There are proven, humane tools supported by the public and a broad array of rangeland stakeholders that can be used to create a conservation legacy of which all Americans can be proud." Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation (RTF) is a pioneering wild horse advocacy organization that has worked to preserve wild horses and burros through sanctuary, education, conservation and advocacy since 1997. RTF operates the American Wild Horse Sanctuary at two California locations. Since 1999, RTF has modeled the use of fertility control and other solutions there that can be implemented on the range. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X, BlueSky, Tik Tok and Youtube. View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Key House Republican opposes Medicaid cuts
The chair of a key House panel in setting Republicans' tax and spending agenda said the GOP will seek savings in Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. But Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) said that he'd oppose cutting them. Buchanan, the chair of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, said that Republicans could do it by rooting out waste. 'I'm not for cuts in Medicaid,' Buchanan said at POLITICO's Health Care Summit Wednesday. 'There are a lot of inefficiencies. We've got to find a way to be able to ... do things better for less." Buchanan's comments come as Republicans are trying to figure out how to pay for President Donald Trump's plan to cut taxes, boost border security and expand energy exploration. House leaders want to find $880 billion in savings to pay for it. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said that would need to come from Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program that more than 75 million low-income Americans rely on. Whether that can be done without cutting benefits is a matter of debate and some Republicans have warned their leaders against going too far. Buchanan said Republicans are open to reducing payment rates for states that have expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Such a change could force states to reduce benefits or raise taxes to avoid doing so. 'It's something they're going to look at,' Buchanan said, adding he hopes to protect Medicaid for the most vulnerable. The federal share of payments is higher for certain beneficiaries in states that have used an Obamacare provision to extend benefits to more enrollees with higher incomes than traditional enrollees. Buchanan said the ballooning federal debt necessitated a search for savings. 'Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security — I'm for all that,' Buchanan said. 'Our interest on the debt is a trillion dollars a year... We've got to find a way to [be] more efficient.'
Politico
02-04-2025
- Health
- Politico
Key House Republican opposes Medicaid cuts
The chair of a key House panel in setting Republicans' tax and spending agenda said the GOP will seek savings in Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. But Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) said that he'd oppose cutting them. Buchanan, the chair of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, said that Republicans could do it by rooting out waste. 'I'm not for cuts in Medicaid,' Buchanan said at POLITICO's Health Care Summit Wednesday. 'There are a lot of inefficiencies. We've got to find a way to be able to ... do things better for less.' Buchanan's comments come as Republicans are trying to figure out how to pay for President Donald Trump's plan to cut taxes, boost border security and expand energy exploration. House leaders want to find $880 billion in savings to pay for it. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said those would need to come from Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program that more than 75 million low-income Americans rely on. Whether that can be done without cutting benefits is a matter of debate and some Republicans have warned their leaders against going too far. Buchanan said Republicans are open to reducing payment rates for states that have expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Such a change in the joint state-federal program could force states to reduce benefits or raise taxes to avoid doing so. 'It's something they're going to look at,' Buchanan said, adding he hopes to protect Medicaid for the most vulnerable. The federal share of payments is higher for certain beneficiaries in states that have used an Obamacare provision to extend benefits to more enrollees with higher incomes than traditional enrollees. Buchanan said the ballooning federal debt necessitated a search for savings. 'Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security — I'm for all that,' Buchanan said. 'Our interest on the debt is a trillion dollars a year .. We've got to find a way to [be] more efficient.'
Fox News
07-03-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
We live in time: Daylight Savings and the 'Time Lords' of Congress
We live in time. We can both make time. Even double time. And we can also lose time. But it's Congress and Presidents who control time. Politicians have the power to dictate time. Down to the hour and the minute of what time it is. That's why we spring forward this weekend. And when you lose your hour of sleep, you know who to blame. No. Not DOGE. But Congress, of course. This dates back more than two centuries. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution grants Congress the power to "fix the Standard of Weights and Measures." That's listed right next to Congressional authority over bankruptcies and punishment for counterfeiters. After all, we lose an hour this weekend like a thief in the night. Congress formally established Daylight Saving Time with the Uniform Time Act of 1966. It also established time zones in the 1880s to help the railroads coordinate. Before that, time hinged on whatever locals said it was. That led to 144 distinct local times in the U.S. The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul even went by different clocks, despite only being separated by the Mississippi River. So, lawmakers are kind of like "Time Lords" from Doctor Who. But while they have not waged the Last Great Time War, for some lawmakers, time has expired for the biannual time change. "I haven't had anybody come to me and say, 'This is something that benefits our society.' Why do we have it around anymore? Let's get rid of the antiquated stuff that hold us back from advancement," said Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga. Florida lawmakers push especially hard to codify the time change in law. After all, Florida is the Sunshine State. Much of the state's economy is based on what you can do outdoors. Sunbathe. Golf. Walk on the beach. Go to amusement parks. "In tourism, it's huge," said Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla. "Instead of getting dark at 5:39, it gets dark at 6:30. It makes a big difference. A lot of times the weather's nice (people) like to be outside eating." Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., pushed time change legislation when he served as governor of the Sunshine State. He's authored a bill which he believes will give all states more sunshine – by effectively freezing time. "It will lock the clock. So stop going back and forth between Daylight Savings Time and Standard Time," said Scott. Former Sen. and now Secretary of State Marco Rubio, R-Fla., authored a bill to mandate Daylight Saving Time year-round several years ago. To everyone's surprise, the Senate approved the bill by unanimous consent in 2022. But the bill then died in the House. Congress approved the Standard Time Act to create the first version of Daylight Saving time in 1918 during World War I. Proponents of the legislation argued that there was "wasted light" at the beginning of the day. Shifting the clocks would reward Americans with "extra" hours of daylight in the evening. "I used to think my state legislature had the foolishiest ideas in the world," said Rep. Robert Thomas, D-Ky., of the measure at the time. "But it never tried to change the sun in its orbit." Farmers and residents of the west opposed the plan. President Woodrow Wilson wanted to keep the time change. But Congress voted to repeal it. Wilson then vetoed the bill. What comes next is one of the most fascinating aspects of time legislation, Congress and the presidency. There have only been 112 successful overrides of a presidential veto in American history. One of them is on a piece of time legislation. Congress overrode Wilson's veto and gave back the hour it picked up during World War I. Presidents have tinkered with changing the time via executive order to maximize daylight during times of crisis. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt shifted the clocks during World War II. President Richard Nixon did the same during the OPEC oil shocks of the 1970s. It was thought that President Trump may wade into the time waters. He's berated the seasonal time changes for years now, dating back to his first term in office. Mr. Trump posted about the time switch on Truth Social as recently as mid-December. "The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn't! Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation," wrote the president. But President Trump wasn't inclined to turn back time when pressed about it by colleague Peter Doocy on Thursday. "It's a 50/50 issue. And if something is a 50/50 issue, it's hard to get excited about it. I assume people would like to have more light later. But some people want to have more light earlier because they don't want to take their kids to school in the dark," said Mr. Trump. The problem is that most people abhor changing the clocks. But they worry about it getting dark way too early in the winter. Or the sun "rising" at absurd times in the summer. It depends on where you live. The country may harbor deep political divisions. But at least one lawmaker believes it's time Americans rally around something. "I'd love for us to not have to switch our clocks if that's something that actually probably can unite Americans right now," said Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J. But at least once senior lawmaker hasn't given the time of day to clock shifting efforts. "You have thoughts on daylight savings?" asked colleague Ryan Schmelz of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y. Jeffries chuckled. "There's a lot going on in the United States of America. I haven't been able to give a thought to daylight savings," replied Jeffries. Shakespeare wrote that "let every man be master of his time." But that's hard to do when Congress decides the time. Of course, the Bard also declared that "what is past is prologue." And that means that despite the legislative efforts, everyone will probably have to change the clocks again in October when we fall back.
