STAT+: RFK Jr. returns to his roots

This is the web edition of D.C. Diagnosis, STAT's twice-weekly newsletter on the politics and policy of health and medicine. The main item reports that on Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will give a keynote address at a Children's Health Defense conference. According to Isa Cueto's reporting, this is RFK Jr.'s first public embrace of the anti-vaccine group since he took over HHS; other speakers include Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

On the confirmation front, the Senate Finance Committee is holding a hearing today to consider Chris Klomp as deputy secretary of Health and Human Services and Ge Bai as assistant HHS secretary. The Senate health committee will hold a courtesy hearing on Klomp's nomination tomorrow. Heidi Overton, President Trump's pick to run the FDA, is absent from the confirmation hearing list; she was formally nominated on Monday.

In the House, the Energy and Commerce health subcommittee is holding a hearing today on 17 health care bills, including proposals to increase Medicare payment to doctors.

A health care fraud bill that had been scheduled for a House floor vote was taken off the agenda. It is unclear whether it will resurface or whether Republicans will consider a different, less partisan fraud bill. Fraud bills generate significant savings, which could be important if lawmakers attempt to pass health care measures during lame duck.

The newsletter also opens with a non-health aside: after ProPublica reported that a Russian close to Putin bankrolled Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding on a private island, Don Jr.'s wife described the oligarch as a 'dear friend' who gave a generous wedding gift.