Week ahead: Gruber to testify before House Oversight

The professor at the center of the latest controversy over ObamaCare will testify before the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday in an event that could overtake the week’s healthcare news.

Jonathan Gruber, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, famously said last year that the “stupidity of the American voter” helped ObamaCare to pass and that a “lack of transparency” aided supporters of the law.

{mosads}Gruber, who has apologized for his remarks, will now discuss them in one of Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) final hearings as Oversight Committee chairman. The event is expected to draw significant attention from Republicans, and will put Democrats on the spot as they seek to distance themselves from Gruber.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Marilyn Tavenner will also attend as a witness. She’s likely to get questions about the administration’s inflated ObamaCare numbers, which Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell has vowed to correct.

Activists are expecting the Senate to take a long-anticipated vote on surgeon general nominee Dr. Vivek Murthy in the middle of the week.

“We are heading for a cloture vote on Monday, with the actual vote on Wednesday or Thursday,” Emily Tisch Sussman, campaign director for the Center for American Progress’s lobbying arm, told The Hill.

The vote would come after a week of intense pressure from health lobbyists. Groups including the American College of Physicians and the American Heart Association have canvassed Capitol Hill urging a confirmation of Murthy before the end of the lame-duck Congress.

One source close to the discussions said “basically all the leadership offices” were in agreement, with the vote likely to come Wednesday or Thursday.

It will be a busy week on Capitol Hill as lawmakers seek to finish their business before the end of the legislative session. House appropriators are slated to announce the “cromnibus” spending package on Monday after completing work Friday night.

The bill consists of 11 long-term spending measures that will fund most of the government through September and a short-term bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Lawmakers must approve the measures before next Friday to avoid a government shutdown.

Healthcare experts will be watching closely for the final amount appropriated for the Ebola response.

The White House has requested $6.2 billion for efforts in West Africa and the United States, including a $1.5 billion contingency fund for future epidemics. While President Obama is expected to receive most of the amount, the contingency fund could prove a stumbling block with fiscal conservatives.

Congressional committees governing healthcare will also be wrapping up their affairs.

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health will hold two hearings. In the first, scheduled for Tuesday, the panel will look at ways to save money in Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. The hearing is designed to help GOP lawmakers set fiscal priorities on healthcare prior to the next congressional session.

In the second hearing, scheduled for Wednesday, the panel will examine the role of the Food and Drug Administration in regulating genetically modified food ingredients. Part of the discussion will center on a bipartisan bill to improve food labeling.

On the Senate side, members of the Finance Committee will meet Tuesday to discuss the Social Security program and its impact on women’s economic stability.

The Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs will look at the Ebola epidemic on Wednesday with a hearing focused on ways the international response can be more effective. The panel will hear testimony from Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf by video conference.

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