MILITARY ABORTION UP FOR VOTE — The House will vote this week on the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, which could include amendments to restrict the Pentagon’s abortion policies, POLITICO’s Connor O’Brien, Lee Hudson and Joe Gould report. The bill cleared the House Armed Services Committee last month with near unanimous support. But whether that broad coalition holds in the full House will depend on the more than 1,300 amendments lawmakers have offered. What the GOP wants: Republicans have filed amendments aimed at restricting the Pentagon’s policies to provide leave and reimburse costs for people who must travel to seek abortions. Though Republicans largely oppose the policy, meant to shore up troops’ access to abortion and reproductive care after Roe v. Wade was overturned, GOP leaders might be circumspect about the proposal this year. The defense policy bill took a hard-right turn last year after Republicans added an amendment blocking the policy. The amendment, opposed by the Senate and White House, didn’t make it into the final bill. Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) leads more than 30 Republicans in a bid to repeal Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s policy and prohibit funding to reimburse travel costs related to reproductive care. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) filed a similar amendment to block money to reimburse abortion-related travel costs. What the Dems want: Democrats look to protect abortion access with many military personnel serving in states where it’s illegal. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) has offered amendments to repeal laws that prohibit defense funding or the use of military medical facilities to perform most abortions except in cases of rape and incest or when the life of the mother is endangered. RADIATION AMENDMENT EFFORT — A bipartisan group of House lawmakers wants Speaker Mike Johnson to put an amendment to the NDAA on the floor that would reauthorize a program compensating people who’ve been harmed by nuclear radiation. Funding for the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act expired Friday, leaving people who have been exposed to nuclear radiation — including those who live “downwind” of the Nevada Test Site, uranium workers and veterans exposed to atomic weapons — without the ability to request compensation for medical treatment they seek for radiation-related illnesses. “When Congress passed the original [law in 1990], it was the right thing to do,” Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (R-N.M.) told reporters Friday. “It was the absolutely right thing to do for the United States to say we made a mistake and we did not take enough care of our Americans, of our communities, when we were testing and exploding these nuclear bombs. So it's our job now to compensate those who are harmed.” The Senate has already passed a bill reauthorizing the legislation, but Speaker Johnson has yet to bring it to the House floor for a vote. Johnson’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment. FIRST IN PULSE: DEMS WANT STI ACTION — Amid a surge in syphilis and shortages of a key treatment, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, and nearly 20 other Democrats are pushing HHS to declare a public emergency, Ben reports. The CDC has called for “urgent action” to take on a tenfold rise in congenital syphilis — when the life-threatening infection is passed during birth — in the past decade. Syphilis cases overall have close to doubled over the past five years. Shortages of an antibiotic treatment because of a spike in demand are expected to persist beyond this year. Raskin and his colleagues argued in a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra that declaring an emergency would allow the FDA to take more action to address the shortages — which committee Democrats are investigating — and HHS to use additional funds. The outlook: It’s not clear whether HHS will heed their calls. An HHS spokesperson said the agency has received the letter and will respond to Raskin. Declaring a public health emergency is rare. Outside of natural disaster-related emergencies, only Covid-19, the opioid epidemic, the Zika virus, the H1N1 flu and mpox have received such a declaration in the past two decades.
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