News Alert: Trump team stokes fight over Mueller

View in your browser     The Memo: Trump team stokes fight over Mueller President Trump and his team are intensifying their attacks on special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe as the investigation enters its second year. Rudy Giuliani told The Hill on Thursday — one year to the day since Mueller was appointed — that “it is an absolute requirement that the investigation and the investigators are put under scrutiny.” Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City who joined the president’s outside legal team last month, highlighted speculation that has been sweeping conservative circles — fanned by the president himself — that the FBI may have had a spy inside the 2016 Trump campaign.  Read the full story here           Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for News Alerts     Forward News Alerts     You Might Like       Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2016 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

Hillicon Valley: Lawmakers target Chinese tech giants | Dems move to save top cyber post | Trump gets a new CIA chief | Ryan delays election security briefing | Twitter CEO meets lawmakers

View in Browser     The Cyber and Tech overnights have joined forces to give you Hillicon Valley, The Hill's new comprehensive newsletter detailing all you need to know about the tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Welcome! Follow the cyber team, Morgan Chalfant (@mchalfant16) and Olivia Beavers (@olivia_beavers), and the tech team, Ali Breland (@alibreland) and Harper Neidig (@hneidig), on Twitter. Contact us with scoops, tips, comments, and takes on whether or not Westworld is actually a good show.   HOUSE COMMITTEE REBUKES TRUMP ON ZTE: The House Appropriations Committee unanimously accepted an amendment to an appropriations bill on Thursday that reinforces sanctions against Chinese telecommunications company ZTE, a rebuke to President Trump, who earlier this week tweeted support for the company. "This amendment would prevent the Commerce Department from renegotiation of the sanctions it just enacted last month on ZTE," said Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), who authored the amendment to the 2019 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill. How we got here: The Commerce Department slapped heavy sanctions on the Chinese company last month, banning it from using American components in its parts, and effectively causing the company to shut down its U.S. operations. The company broke U.S. trade control laws by selling components to Iran and North Korea. On Sunday, President Trump did a surprising about-face on his typically tough China rhetoric, declaring in a tweet that, "President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast. Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!" The trouble for Trump: The tweet shocked lawmakers in both parties given the support for the sanctions and Trump's own bellicose rhetoric on China. Lawmakers say ZTE has been a national security threat, not only breaking American sanctions, but allegedly stealing intellectual property on behalf of the Chinese government. More on how ZTE is pitting lawmakers from both parties against Trump.   FIGHT OVER CYBER POST: House Democrats are urging President Trump to reconsider his decision to scrap a top cyber policy adviser role. The administration decided to eliminate the position aimed at coordinating the government's approach to cybersecurity policy across federal agencies. "The risks individuals and countries face in cyberspace are only increasing, and we must build on our capacity to combat those risks -- not take needless steps backwards," Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) and seven other House Democrats wrote in a letter to the president on Thursday. "We urge you to strongly reconsider this decision. America needs to send a strong message to allies and adversaries alike that we are committed to leading and solving complex cybersecurity issues," the letter continues. We explain the controversy here.   Another Democrat is turning to the annual defense policy bill to save the post. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) filed an amendment to annual defense policy legislation that would prohibit President Trump from eliminating the cybersecurity coordinator position at the National Security Council (NSC). Moulton filed his amendment to the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) with the House Rules Committee this week. It will be up to the committee to decide which amendments ultimately go to the floor when the full House votes on the bill next week. More on Moulton's effort here.   INSIDE THE DEFENSE BILL: There are several other notable tech and cyber-related amendments in the annual defense bill. Among them: A measure introduced by Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) that would instruct the Defense Secretary to set up a "cyber institute" at the Pentagon to help the department collaborate with industry, academia and other government organizations on cyber matters. Lawmakers are also using the defense bill to take aim at ZTE. Several lawmakers are attempting to insert amendments into the fiscal 2018 NDAA aimed at keeping products from Chinese tech giants like ZTE and Huawei out of the U.S. over national security concerns One amendment drafted by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) proposed that the heads of government agencies report to Congress "any quid pro quo offers between the United States Government and the Government of the People's Republic of China to ensure the United States will reduce penalties, sanctions, or any other punitive action" against ZTE. Another by Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) would compel the director of national intelligence to provide Congress with an assessment of the national security implications of Trump's proposal to reduce penalties on ZTE. Two more amendments from Reps. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) and Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) would mandate that President Trump bar ZTE and its larger Chinese mobile phone competitor, Huawei, from bringing their telecommunications equipment into the U.S. until the administration receives confirmation that such companies don't pose a threat to national security. Click here for a closer look at how lawmakers are targeting ZTE in the defense bill. What's next: The House Rules Committee is expected to decide early next week which amendments will ultimately go to the floor when the full House votes on the defense policy bill.   TRUMP GETS A CIA DIRECTOR: The Senate on Thursday confirmed Gina Haspel to lead the CIA despite engrained opposition over her involvement in the George W. Bush-era interrogation program. GOP Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Jeff Flake (Ariz.) sided with most Democrats in voting against Haspel. GOP Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who was captured and tortured during the Vietnam War, also opposes her nomination but is in Arizona battling brain cancer. Several Democrats including Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and red-state Democratic Sens. Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) supported the nominee. Haspel is a veteran CIA official who has been with the agency for more than 30 years and by all accounts is well-liked by her colleagues. But her nomination received roughly half the support from Democrats that now-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a former House member, received last year when he was confirmed as President Trump's first CIA chief. We have more on the drama surrounding her nomination, and her ultimate confirmation, here.   SPECIAL COUNSEL CLEARS FCC CHAIR OF ETHICS VIOLATION IN CPAC APPEARANCE: The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) says that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai did not run afoul of ethics laws in appearing at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). But the watchdog also said that it will give FCC employees ethics training following the controversy over the three GOP commissioners' appearance at the right-wing gathering in February. "After considering all of the facts and circumstances surrounding the event, OSC has concluded that you did not violate the Hatch Act by merely participating in the panel discussion in an official capacity," OSC official Ana Galindo-Marrone wrote in the letter to Pai, which is dated May 16. The OSC also told a pair of House Democrats that it would be holding ethics training for FCC employees following months of back-and-forth over the officials' CPAC appearance. To recap: The OSC hit GOP Commissioner Michael O'Reilly with a warning after concluding that he violated the Hatch Act when he urged CPAC attendees to re-elect President Trump. And in March, Pai declined a "courage under fire" award, in the form of a musket, that was presented to him at the event for his work repealing net neutrality. We've got more here.   NEWS ABOUT SOMETHING THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN TODAY: Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has postponed a briefing for members of Congress on the security of U.S. voting systems so that it can be classified. The move comes after Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), pressed GOP leadership to make the briefing classified so that officials could go into sufficient detail about the scope of the threat and the Trump administration's efforts to protect digital election systems from hackers. Sources told The Hill that the briefing, originally scheduled for Thursday evening, has been pushed back as a result of logistical issues that prevented it from being classified. GOP leadership is now working to reschedule the briefing. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats were originally scheduled to brief members on the Trump administration's efforts to secure digital election infrastructure on Thursday at 5 p.m. Ryan announced the briefing late Monday, amid widespread concerns about foreign threats to the midterm elections triggered by a Russian interference campaign in the 2016 vote that included cyber targeting of state election systems. The Speaker's announcement came on the eve of primaries in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Idaho and Oregon. The briefing was initially planned to be unclassified, but limited to members of Congress. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), however, charged that the unclassified nature would prevent officials from going into enough detail about efforts to protect U.S. voting systems. The briefing is expected to be rescheduled as early as next week. We break it all down here.   CRUZ BLASTS PROPOSAL TO END SPACE STATION FUNDING: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is blasting a proposal to end funding for the International Space Station (ISS) and vowing to fight for the program. "Nowhere in federal statute is there a request from Congress seeking a hard deadline to end federal support for ISS." "Prematurely canceling a program for political reasons costs jobs and wastes billions of dollars," Cruz said during a Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing Wednesday. "We cannot afford to continue to pursue policies that have consequences of creating gaps in capability, that send $3 1/2 billion in taxpayer money to the Russian government, or that create a leadership vacuum in low-earth orbit that provides a window of opportunity for the Chinese to capitalize on it." Background: The administration has proposed ending funding for the space station in seven years, by 2025. At the hearing lawmakers from both parties led by Cruz and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), though, pushed back.   WHISTLEBLOWER ALLEGES BANNON WANTED TO SUPPRESS BLACK VOTE: Christopher Wylie, the whistleblower behind the Cambridge Analytica revelations, said in a CNN interview that Steve Bannon directed the firm to research suppressing the vote among black Americans in order to perpetuate a "cultural warfare." "Mr. Bannon sees cultural warfare as the means to create enduring change in American politics. It was for this reason Mr. Bannon engaged SCL [Cambridge Analytica's parent company], a foreign military contractor, to build an arsenal of informational weapons he could deploy on the American population," Wylie said Wednesday.   @JACK ON THE HILL: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey met with several U.S. lawmakers on Thursday to discuss issues such as data privacy and net neutrality. "Pleasure to meet with @Twitter's @jack today," Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) tweeted. Markey also wrote that Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) attended the meeting with Dorsey as well. Markey wrote that they had discussed net neutrality, online privacy and immigration. Dorsey also met with top Republican lawmakers including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (S.D.) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.). The Twitter CEO's conversations with them focused more on potential misuse of the platform, according to tweets the lawmakers posted after their meetings. We've got more on his visit here.   HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MUELLER PROBE: Here's our piece on how divisions on Capitol Hill were in full force on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the special counsel investigation into Russian interference.     A LIGHTER TWITTER CLICK: Come on A.I. bot, do better.   NEWS ABOUT THE WOZ: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is blasting technology companies for abusing user privacy and is suggesting that regulators crack down on the industry's massive market power. In a wide-ranging interview with Business Insider, Wozniak said that companies like Facebook have been deceiving internet users about their privacy. "I'm bothered by what technology has become," he said when asked about data scandals like Cambridge Analytica and cybersecurity threats to elections. "We've lost our privacy and it's been abused." More on Wozniak here.   QUICK HITS: A Dem lawmaker plans to launch a discharge petition to force a House vote on saving net neutrality. PayPal is finalizing a deal to buy Swedish small-business platform iZettle for $2.2 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday. It would be PayPal's largest deal ever. Buzzfeed reports that a paid comment system on YouTube has been co-opted by white nationalists and members of the alt-right as a way around the site's complex policies on how to make money off the platform. Facebook is launching a partnership with the Atlantic Council to boost its global election security efforts.   ON TAP TOMORROW:  The House Energy and Commerce Committee is holding a hearing tomorrow morning on quantum computing.   NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB: U.S. Cyber Command has achieved full operational capability. (Cyber Command) 'ZipperDown' vulnerability could impact 100 million iPhones. (Forbes) Scan4You operator convicted on federal charges. (Gizmodo) Florida counties want more money to secure their election systems. (Tampa Bay Times) There is a lot of fake ICO whitepapers out there. (WSJ) Google's Selfish Ledger is an unsettling vision of Silicon Valley social engineering (The Verge)           Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for Technology Newsletters     Forward Technology Newsletters       Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2016 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

Overnight Health Care — Sponsored by PCMA — FDA tries to shame companies it says may delay generics | Talks underway on controversial drug pricing bill | NIH suspends study on benefits of alcohol

Sponsored by Pharmaceutical Care Management Association | View in Browser     Welcome to Overnight Health Care, sponsored by the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association. It's Thursday in Washington where House Republicans are trying to reach a deal to move ahead on immigration. Centrist Republicans want a vote on a bill to protect "Dreamers," but conservatives want a vote on a tougher immigration bill. And the fight could threaten the farm bill. In the health care world, the focus is still on President Trump's drug pricing plan. Trump unveiled the plan in a speech last week, but it's dominated the health care conversation. Today, the FDA posted a list of drug companies it's accusing of gaming the system to delay generics, and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) gave some interesting hints on a drug pricing measure in Congress.   FDA names and shames. One of the actions that administration officials touted last week in Trump's drug pricing plan is now under way; companies that some believe are "gaming" the system to delay generic drugs are being publicly shamed.  The FDA published a list of drug companies that it said could trying to delay competition from cheaper generics. "No patients should be priced out of medicines they need to support their health," FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. "We hope that this increased transparency will help reduce unnecessary hurdles to generic drug development and approval," he added. The details: The FDA published a list of 52 branded drugs whose makers could be using delay tactics to prevent generic drug companies from getting the samples they need to bring competitors to market. Various drug companies are called out on the list, including Celgene, Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline. We've got more on the FDA's move here.       SPONSORED CONTENT   Pharmaceutical Care Management Association Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are hired by employers, unions, and government programs to negotiate aggressive discounts from drug companies and drugstores. PBMs continue to keep overall spending and out-of-pocket costs down despite massive price hikes by drugmakers. Learn how PBMs are part of the solution to reducing Rx costs at DrugBenefitSolutions.com.       Lawmakers are looking at their own solution on drug prices. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) pleasantly surprised some backers of a drug pricing bill in Congress by name-dropping it during an interview at a conference on Thursday. What we know: Ryan said the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Judiciary Committee are working out a compromise on the legislation, known as the Creates Act. What we don't know: Ryan did not get into details on what that a final bill could entail. Some Republicans have previously objected to the bill on the grounds that it would invite frivolous lawsuits against drug companies. A compromise could seek to address that concern. The bill has been stalled for months. There is support from members of both parties but there has also been an intense lobbying campaign against it from drug companies. The measure seeks to crack down on delay tactics that drug companies use to slow the pace of cheaper generic drugs hitting the market. Reason for skepticism: Most observers do not expect Congress to take any major action on drug prices in an election year. But there's always the chance the bill could hitch a ride on must-pass legislation. We break it down here..   Right to Try legislation could get to President Trump's desk soon. Momentum appeared to stall after both chambers passed different versions of Right to Try legislation. But on Thursday, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced the chamber would take up the Senate-passed bill next week. What the bill does: It lets very sick patients request access to experimental drugs the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hasn't approved, and lets them bypass the agency to do so. The opposition: House Democrats largely voted against the measure, arguing that it could harm patient safety, concerns echoed by patient groups. They also contend the legislation provides "false hope" to patients because drugmakers aren't required to give patients the drug if they asked for it. On the other side, supporters argue that terminally ill patients should have every tool at their disposal to help them. Among the prominent supporters are groups backed by conservative mega-donors Charles and David Koch. Read more on the interesting politics of the bill here.      A watchdog group says CMS is pulling a disappearing trick with certain ObamaCare-related websites. A Department of Health and Human Services web page that provided information about how Medicare coverage is affected by ObamaCare was removed from the federal Medicare website, according to a report from the Sunlight Foundation. The report notes that in December 2017, a page titled "The Affordable Care Act & Medicare" was removed from the Medicare website without notice. It no longer exists. A link that led to this page and descriptive text about the Affordable Care Act, called "Medicare & the Marketplace" were also removed from the Medicare website. It still exists, you just can't navigate there. CMS response: "We decided, based on outdated content and low usage, that the ACA & Medicare page was no longer relevant or needed and took action to remove the page on 12/21/17," the agency told The Hill, and pointed to the current "Medicare & the Marketplace" page that they said was more "relevant." This isn't the first time: The Sunlight Foundation has been publishing a series of reports about information being removed from federal health websites, including information about lesbian and bisexual health from the Office of Women's Health.   NIH Director Francis Collins says he has suspended a study on the possible benefits of moderate drinking after reports agency officials lobbied the beverage industry to fund it. Concerns were raised after a recent New York Times story claimed NIH officials directly solicited donations from alcoholic beverage manufacturers to fund a $100 million study on the health effects of moderate alcohol consumption. Key quote from Collins: "For NIH, our reputation is so critical. And if we are putting ourselves in a circumstance where that could be called into question, I felt like we had to look at that very seriously and come up with another strategy." Why it matters: Public health experts argue such an arrangement would violate the agency's policies, which are designed to prevent outside influence on research results. We have more on the controversy here.   Childbirth rates in the U.S. have fallen to a 30-year low, with only 3.8 million births last year. New numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the general fertility rate, or the number of live births per 1,000 women of childbearing age, was 60.2 percent, down 3 percent from 2016, reaching another record low for the nation. Also in the report: Researchers have been trying to figure out for years why the U.S. has faced declining fertility rates. "The rate has generally been below replacement since 1971," the CDC said. The trend of women waiting longer to have children is continuing -- birth rates dropped for women aged 15–39, but increased for women aged 40 -- 44. Teen pregnancy rates are also dropping. Click here for more on the report.         SPONSORED CONTENT   Pharmaceutical Care Management Association Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) have outlined several policy solutions to ensure patients receive opioid prescriptions when safe and medically appropriate. One important solution would be requiring e-prescribing of controlled substances in Medicare (S. 2460 / H.R. 3528, the Every Prescription Conveyed Securely Act). A new study by the Opioid Safety Alliance finds this could save taxpayers $13 billion over 10 years.       Roundup The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday approved a medication to lessen the side effects of opioid withdrawal. Health officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) said Thursday that an outbreak of the Ebola virus had spread to an important port city, opening a new and potentially deadly front in the epidemic. President Trump donated his salary for the first quarter of 2018 to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the White House said Thursday.   What we're reading Insurers figured out how to make a profit from ObamaCare last Yyear (Bloomberg) There's a fight brewing between the Trump administration and drugmakers (The Washington Post Health 202 newsletter) San Francisco will bring anti-addiction medication to users on the streets (The Washington Post)   State by state Gov. LePage asks Maine court to toss suit aimed at forcing Medicaid expansion (Bangor Daily News) Medicaid expansion would benefit 194,000 people in South Carolina, new study finds (Post and Courier) ACLU, state spar before Supreme Court over Maine's ban on Medicaid-funded abortions (Portland Press Herald)     Send tips and comments to Jessie Hellmann, jhellmann@thehill.com; Peter Sullivan, psullivan@thehill.com; Rachel Roubein, rroubein@thehill.com; and Nathaniel Weixel, nweixel@thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @thehill, @jessiehellmann, @PeterSullivan4, @rachel_roubein, and @NateWeixel.         Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for Healthcare Newsletters     Forward Healthcare Newsletters       Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2016 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.