HEALTHCARE ACCESS AND AFFORDABILITY

Action: Gottheimer helped break a partisan stalemate and negotiate an agreement on the second COVID-19 emergency pandemic relief package, which was signed into law. This crucial legislation included:

1. Enhanced Unemployment Insurance (UI) – $300 per week
2. Direct stimulus checks – $600 per individual, including children
3. Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and small business support – $325 billion
4. CDFI/MDI Community Lender Support – $12 billion
5. Transportation (Airlines, Airports, Buses, Transit and Amtrak) – $45 billion
6. Support for Vaccine Development and Distribution, Testing and Tracing
7. Support for Health Care Providers and Health Care Workers
8. Education Funding – $82 billion
9. Rental Assistance and Eviction Moratorium – $25 billion
10. Nutrition/Agriculture – $26 billion
11. Child Care – $10 billion
12. Dedicated Broadband Funding – $7 billion
13. Mental Health & Opioid Treatment – $4.3 billion

Result: Became Public Law No: 116-260

Date: 12/27/2020

Action: Gottheimer helped pass into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. This bipartisan bill ensured frontline medical workers, hospitals, health care centers, first responders, and small businesses had the resources and full support to do their jobs safely and effectively during the COVID pandemic.

Result: Became Public Law No: 116-136

Date: 3/27/2020

Action: This bill establishes grant programs to address neurodegenerative diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease). It also requires the Government Accountability Office to report to Congress about the grants this bill provides, including an analysis on the impact these grants have had on treatments for ALS.

Result: Became a Law 

Date:05/25/2021

Action: This bill allows New Jersey’s life sciences leaders to be able to invest more in research and development for cures for orphan diseases, which currently have no FDA-approved treatments, and grow the talent pipeline for life sciences jobs in New Jersey through training partnerships and apprenticeships.

Result: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health

Date: 3/3/23

Action: This bill awards federal grants through the CDC for states to implement tick-identification programs. The program works by taking a picture of the tick, noting the location and date where it was encountered, and submitting it to a database to track encounters and best practices.. This would create a more effective public health response against Lyme disease, which is transmitted through tick bites and is disproportionately prevalent in New Jersey.

Result: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health

Date: 6/30/2023

Action: This bill creates a new postage stamp to supplement congressionally-appropriated research funding for Lyme and tick-borne disease treatments at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It will boost investment in R&D for Lyme disease treatment.

Result: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health

Date: 07/07/2023

Action: This bill combats equipment shortages by creating a critical new national system that will provide real-time updates of medical and health supply inventories nationwide.

Result: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.

Date: 5/22/23

Action: This bill requires coverage for blood tests to check for the presence of lead in children under the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). 

Result: Referred to subcommittee on Health

Date:05/25/2021

Action: This amendment requires an HHS study to identify serious or life-threatening conditions or rare diseases that currently do not have an FDA-approved treatment.. It also requires HHS to identify strategies that lead to the development of such treatments.

Result: On agreeing to the Gottheimer amendment (A007) Agreed to by recorded vote: 380 – 45 (Roll no. 678).

Date: 12/12/2019

Action: This bill incentivizes clinical research that was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, by allowing any company that resumes a trial for new or existing orphan drugs that show promise and were halted during the pandemic to be granted a claw-back of an additional six months of exclusivity on the specific product under consideration when it comes to market.

Result: Introduced

Date: 8/2/2022

Action: This bill allows certain off-campus departments of providers to be included in the Medicare payment system for hospital outpatient services. 

Result: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.

Date: 7/1/2021

Action: This bill directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to provide funding for resident and employee safety in nursing facilities.

Result: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health

Date: 2/4/2021

Action: This bill requires long-term care facilities to have a crisis plan in place to manage disease outbreaks, maintain a stockpile of personal protective equipment (PPE) on hand to protect residents and staff, and keep residents’ family members informed of outbreaks and public health emergencies.

Result: Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

Date: 5/28/2020

Action: This bill ensures continued innovation and research to further the development of life-saving medicines for diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and rare disorders. This bipartisan bill will provide federal investment in qualified clinical testing for drug applications that address unmet medical needs to treat rare and life-threatening diseases.
Result: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.

Date: 12/12/2019

Action: This bill provides qualifying hospitals with the opportunity to finally adjust their residency caps to better reflect their workforce needs, correcting an arbitrary and outdated cap on hospital graduate medical education slots. Because of this outdated calculation, some New Jersey medical programs lack the adequate slots to train as many physicians as possible here. 

Result: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health

Date: 07/16/2019

Action: This bill revises payment rules under Medicare for graduate medical education (GME) costs for hospitals that establish a new medical residency training program.

Result: Introduced in House

Date: 6/14/2018

Action: This bill updates the Medicare benefits package to ensure that all beneficiaries have access to crucial items and services that are important to their overall health. 

Result: Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

Date: 1/9/23

Action: This bill provides permanent and mandatory funding for the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP) and updates an outdated funding formula to prevent a future funding shortfall and ensure that survivors and first responders don’t lose access to care.

Date: 3/1/23

Action: This bill ensures federal funds for pediatric cancer research match the same percentage of the number of Americans younger than eighteen years of age as part of the general population.

Result: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.

Date: 9/12/23

Action: This bill ensures that every worker, no matter the size of their employer or if they are self-employed or part-time, has access to paid leave for every serious medical event, every time it’s needed. 

Result: Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means. 

Date: 5/17/23

Action: This bill ensures that every worker, no matter the size of their employer or if they are self-employed or part-time, has access to paid leave for every serious medical event, every time it’s needed. 

Result: Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means. 

Date: 5/17/23

Action: This bill expands the list of the providers eligible for Medicare reimbursement for providing care via telehealth.

Result: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health. 

Date: 6/6/23

Action: This bill requires commercial and governmental health insurance plans that offer services related to mental health and substance use disorders to offer these, with no co-pay from the onset of regular pregnancy care through one-year postpartum.

Result: Referred to the Subcommittee on Health. 

Date: 5/14/24

Action: This bill gives the President the authority, during periods of shortage, to specify that certain baby formulas may be imported and sold in the U.S. The bill also allows the President to suspend tariffs on baby formula, and baby formula ingredients, and instructs customs to give such products priority processing. 

Result: Referred to the Subcommittee on Trade.

Date: 5/24/22

Action: This bill repeals the prohibition against granting federal, state, and local governments a tax credit for paid sick and paid family and medical leave.

Result:Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.