On March 6, the President released a revised Executive Order on immigration. ASTMH released a statement on the revised order reiterating our continued concerns about the restrictions imposed by the Executive Order. See below.
On the subject of Executive Orders, the Mexico City Policy, also known as the Global Gag Rule (GGR) has been in place since Ronald Reagan issued it in 1984 through an Executive Order. Enacted, rescinded and re-enacted over the course of later Republican and Democratic Administrations, it was not a policy item for ASTMH since it addressed the prohibition of federal funds to perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning. However, on January 23, President Trump released a Presidential Memorandum significantly expand the original GGR to apply to ALL U.S. global health assistance. It is unclear what, if any impact this might have on NGOs who operate in the global health space and if this will affect tropical medicine efforts in some unforeseen way.
FY 2018 Budget
OMB Director Mulvaney announced that the Administration will release a “skinny budget” on March 15. The annual budget process typically begins in February with the release of the President’s budget; however, that date is pushed back during a President’s first term, in this case likely in the beginning of May. In lieu of a full budget proposal, the President will release a skinny budget that gives topline recommendations for federal agencies. President Trump announced in late February that his FY 2018 proposal would increase defense funding by $54 billion and it would be offset by cuts to non-defense discretionary spending, which could include funding of the State Department, USAID, CDC and NIH. This proposal has been met with opposition by leadership on both sides of the aisle, an indication that Congress could take a different direction when they write their FY 2018 budget.
Congress still needs to finalize their FY 2017 funding as they are currently operating under a continuing resolution (CR) that expires on April 28. Last week the House passed an FY 2017 defense spending bill, but there is no timeline on when they would address the remaining spending bills. Given the time constraints required for finalizing the reconciliation bill on the Affordable Care Act, upcoming nomination process for Supreme Court Justice and the more than 1,000 federal agency nominees that have yet to be named or confirmed, the schedule is packed and could result in a full year CR for FY 2017.
FDA Commissioner Named
Finally, on March 10 President Trump announced that he would nominate Dr. Scott Gottlieb to be Commissioner of the FDA. Dr. Gottlieb is a physician and resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Dr. Gottlieb served as an FDA Deputy Commissioner for Medical and Scientific Affairs under President George W. Bush.