The House of Representatives in early evening December 20, 2024, passed H.R. 10545, the American Relief Act of 2025, a stopgap spending bill that funds the federal government at fiscal year 2024 levels through March 14, 2025, provides $100 billion in disaster assistance for states, and extends certain health care policies into the new year.
The updated bill, unveiled by House Republican leaders in the late afternoon of December 20, contains many of the same provisions as a previous version that failed to pass the House on December 19, with the exception of a debt limit increase requested by President-elect Donald Trump.
On the health care side, H.R. 10545 extends Medicare telehealth flexibilities, the Acute Hospital at Home waiver, and funding for Medicare counseling and assistance programs through March 31, 2025. The hospice face-to-face recertification via telehealth is among those policies extended. This reflects the language marked up by the Ways and Means Committee this spring and passed out of Committee unanimously. Unfortunately, the final bill eliminated several new policies and reauthorizations that were included in a December 17 bipartisan agreement negotiated by Congressional leaders but opposed by President-elect Trump and Elon Musk, an advisor to President-elect Trump. Some of the provisions that were dropped from the final bill include beneficial Medicaid policies, including an authorization of a five-state, three-year pilot program to authorize selected states to cover home and community-based services (HCBS) for individuals who need such services but do not meet the current law requirement of having an “institutional level of care” under SSA 1915(c), an increase in Part B payments, and reauthorizations of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and the Older Americans Act (OAA).
H.R. 10545, which passed the House by a vote of 366-34, now heads to the Senate where leaders expect to fast-track final passage and send it to the President’s desk to be signed into law.
Follow the negotiations via our Updates: Year-End Funding and Policy Negotiations; Agency Contingency Plans serial post.
