Richard H. Hughes, IV, Member of the Firm in the Health Care & Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in POLITICO, in “Big Bill, Big Coverage Losses: Vaccines–Codifying ACIP?”
Following is an excerpt:
House Democrats plan to introduce a bill to codify the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel — after HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declined last week to wait for a vote from the outside experts and announced an update to Covid-19 vaccine recommendations, Sophie reports.
The panel typically votes on changes to the CDC’s vaccine recommendations after considering the most recent data. The CDC’s director can technically reject the panel’s decision but almost always accepts it.
Zoom out: The measure likely won’t succeed in the GOP-controlled House and comes after many activists have urged the Democrats to do more.
Donald Trump’s White House has also targeted a handful of the CDC’s other discretionary advisory committees, raising concerns about the future of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Whether the administration could disband ACIP legally is debatable: The committee is “not codified in federal law in the sense that Congress never expressly mandated its existence,” said Richard Hughes IV, a professorial lecturer at George Washington Law School and a former Moderna executive, in an email. But it is repeatedly referenced in federal law, which would “certainly bolster any argument against disbanding the committee,” Hughes said.
The bill, from Energy and Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.), would end that debate if it became law — officially codifying the committee and its role.
