OME Advocate Newsletter

Following his victory in last month’s election, President-Elect Trump has named many nominees for agency leadership positions, including those within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Education. Generally, President-Elect Trump has selected individuals who are Washington outsiders and are on the record as being critics of federal health agencies, including Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as HHS Secretary.

AACOM’s Government Relations team and our partners at Venable, LLP prepared an overview of key leadership positions in the incoming Trump Administration and 119th Congress and identified the health and higher education policy priorities that may impact the osteopathic medical education (OME) community. The new Administration and Congress create opportunities and challenges for osteopathic medicine, and AACOM will be positioning the profession to take advantage of the former and mitigate the latter. Several key policy areas are highlighted below and the full overview, including relevant congressional committee leadership, can be read here.

A key philosophical approach to policy and governing under the second Trump Administration will be questioning and disrupting the status quo. Political appointees will be expected to scrutinize existing programs for their value and investigate the role and contributions of career agency staff. How this will be operationalized is already evident in President-Elect Trump’s nominees for key political positions within HHS, most of whom are Washington outsiders and have never served in government. AACOM will be looking for opportunities to advance professional priorities, such as increasing National Institutes of Health funding for COMs in any restructuring efforts while protecting programs and policies that contribute to public health.

President-Elect Trump and congressional Republicans have expressed an interest in ensuring that their constituents have improved access to healthcare, with a particular focus on primary care, behavioral health, substance use disorder services and mental healthcare. President-Elect Trump and his colleagues in the House and Senate maintain that too much focus has been placed on expanding access to health insurance rather than empowering individuals and families to make the best choices for themselves, including which provider they see and providing cost comparison information.

Both chambers of the 119th Congress will be led by Republicans, whose very narrow majority in the House will make governing difficult. While Senate Republicans will not have 60 votes, they have enough of a margin so that most of President-Elect Trump’s nominees should be approved, particularly with Vice President Vance serving as the 51st tie-breaking vote, as needed. The incoming Republican-controlled Congress has many of the same priorities as President-Elect Trump and is expected to follow his lead on what policies to prioritize for congressional time and action. General areas of agreement include:

• Reforming federal science, research and public health agencies
• Ensuring access to care in rural communities
• Expanding access to substance use disorder treatment and/or mental health services
• Providing consumers with choice and information to make better healthcare decisions

We have updated our map detailing each COM's congressional delegations in the incoming 119th Congress. We encourage you to review the list to identify your representation in the new Congress and reach out to their office when they are seated in January. If you already have connections with any existing or incoming Members of Congress or new members of the presidential administration, please let us know at aacomgr@aacom.org. Your connections can help strengthen AACOM's advocacy efforts.

With a new administration taking office, AACOM encourages members of the OME community to join or update their profile in our Talent Bank. This registry helps AACOM identify individuals to serve on federal advisory committees, national organizations or in other professional roles, amplifying the voice of the profession. Your registration demonstrates your interest, and AACOM will obtain your approval prior to any nomination.

• The U.S. House of Representatives did not take up the College Cost Reduction Act (CCRA), H.R. 6951, in the waning days of the 118th Congress (despite reports of a potential vote), but the legislation will likely see activity in the 119th Congress.
• The CCRA would overhaul many higher education programs, including eliminating the Grad PLUS Loan Program, capping federal loan amounts to $200,000 per borrower, limiting student loan repayment plan options and establishing a new risk-sharing framework that requires institutions of higher education to make payments to the government based on student loan borrower non-repayment.
• The proposed elimination of the Grad PLUS Loan Program would likely push more osteopathic medical student borrowers to the private student loan market where they will lose access to federal repayment and forgiveness programs, including Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
• AACOM will be monitoring the CCRA and working with our partners to mitigate adverse outcomes to the OME community.
• For more information on the CCRA, you can read this Congressional Research Service analysis and an American Council on Education report, and we encourage you to share with us any concerns or actions taken at aacomgr@aacom.org.

• The continuing resolution (CR), H.R. 9747, passed by the House and Senate back in September is set to expire this Friday, December 20, 2024. Congress must pass fiscal year (FY) 2025 spending bills or another CR before then to avert a government shutdown.
• Certain healthcare priorities, such as the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education program, the National Health Service Corps, Community Health Centers funding and telehealth flexibilities, will also need to be renewed as part of this funding process or they will expire at the end of the year.
• Separately, lawmakers in the House and Senate continue to negotiate a disaster aid package to attach to the expected stopgap spending bill. Similarly, Congress must pass the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act before the end of the year. On December 11, the House passed a compromised version of the FY25 NDAA, H.R. 5009, with a vote of 281-140. The $883.7 billion dollar Pentagon policy bill now heads to the Senate for a passage vote before being ready for President Biden’s signature.
• The most likely outcome for the new stopgap funding bill is another CR that will run through the middle of next March. AACOM will continue to advocate for education and health provisions important to our community and will track updates as the funding process continues.

• On December 11, 2024, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra signed a 12th amendment to the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act for Medical Countermeasures Against COVID-19 to extend the duration, in full, through December 31, 2029, effective January 1, 2025.
• During the COVID-19 pandemic, Students Assist America, an interprofessional initiative of 12 associations spearheaded by AACOM, successfully advocated for a Seventh Amendment to the PREP Act, authorizing nearly one million students from designated health professions, including osteopathic medical students, to administer COVID-19 vaccinations with supervision. This authorization remains in the scope of the 12th amendment.

Apply to Intern with AACOM’s Government Relations Department: Applications are open for AACOM’s Osteopathic Health Policy Internship (OHPI) Program! The OHPI Program is an eight-week virtual internship for osteopathic medical students to learn about and advance AACOM’s legislative and regulatory advocacy priorities. The program is open to current second- and third-year osteopathic medical students who will be on their clinical rotations during the 2025-26 academic year. Apply by February 21, 2025. Learn more.

Register for AACOM/COGSP’s Student Advocacy Webinar: Join AACOM and its Council of Osteopathic Student Government Presidents on Thursday, January 30, 2025 from 7:00–8:00 PM ET for an educational webinar on osteopathic student advocacy. Participants will hear directly from student advocacy leaders and members of the AACOM Government Relations team on how they can get involved in advocating for OME policy priorities. Register.

Apply to HRSA’s Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students Program: The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) recently announced their Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students (SDS) Program, which funds schools that train health professions students in specific disciplines. Schools make scholarships available to students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The FY25 application cycle is now open through February 19, 2025. Learn more and apply.

Register for FORHP Rural Hospital Stabilization Program (RHSP) Webinar: Join an informational webinar on December 18th at 3pm ET with the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) to learn about 1the RHSP, a new program that offers assistance to eligible hospitals to improve financial stability or expand health care services. Eligible hospitals include critical access hospitals, rural emergency hospitals and Indian Health Service hospitals. Learn more and register.