Late last week the Senate began its July 4 holiday recess and won’t return to Washington, DC, until the week of July 13, 2026. Across the Capitol, the House is scheduled to be in session Monday to Thursday of this week, but activity in the House Rules Committee could send the week’s legislative plans into tilt.
At 4:00 pm EDT today, the House Rules Committee is scheduled to meet on a rule for bills expected to come to the floor this week, including HR 8800, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026. We should have a clearer sense of the House floor outlook after the Rules Committee meets. If the committee can advance the rule, the House could move forward with consideration of the NDAA and other measures this week. But if the Rules Committee is unable to move, the rest of the week could quickly fall apart, with the potential for scheduled hearings or floor activity to be canceled.
On the healthcare front, the House suspension calendar today includes HR 5347, the Health Care Efficiency Through Flexibility Act, which would address collection types for quality reporting under the Medicare Shared Savings Program.
Naturally, with the Senate on recess there is no committee action in the Senate. In the House, the Committee on Education and Workforce, Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions is scheduled to hold a hearing on direct contracting and healthcare affordability. It is also rumored that the House Committee on Ways and Means may hold a markup this Wednesday, which might include a hospital reporting bill that the committee announced earlier this year but later pulled back to obtain additional technical assistance.
On the regulatory front, we await the calendar year 2027 proposed Medicare physician and outpatient department payment regulations, which could arrive as early as this week.
Because of the July 4 holiday, the Healthcare Preview will be on hiatus next week and will return on July 13, 2026.
In this week’s Healthcare Preview, Debbie Curtis and Rodney Whitlock join Maddie News to discuss what’s been heating up in Congress over the last few months and what’s on the horizon for the rest of the year.
