In the News

When Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. sat before me during a Ways & Means Committee hearing in April, I shared the story of Joanne, a Washington senior on Medicare who had been lingering in crippling pain for weeks while she waited for approval for a common pain treatment. Her delay was the direct result of the Trump administration’s new AI experiment that… Read more »

Recently released federal documents show the Trump administration planned an expansion of an AI-driven Medicare prior authorization program to millions more patients nationwide, drawing concern after early data from the pilot points to delays in care. Internal communications from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services surfaced by a FOIA request from the Electronic Frontier… Read more »

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bipartisan measure Tuesday that would give the National Taxpayer Advocate a new court-related authority: seeking to participate as a friend of the court in federal tax cases involving issues that could affect large numbers of taxpayers. The bill passed under suspension of the rules by voice vote, so there is no record of how individual members… Read more »

As anxiety over artificial intelligence rises, some members of Congress are taking aim at the Trump administration’s controversial AI model to combat Medicare fraud. House Democrats and a few Republicans are pushing for more transparency around the payment model, known as WISeR, after a tranche of government records showed it was delaying patient care. The Centers for Medicare and… Read more »

Members of Congress said they're actively working to better protect our country from landslides. The promise is timely as North Carolina approaches two years since Hurricane Helene. The historic storm caused thousands of landslides in the mountains that killed at least 31 people. After WCNC Charlotte's "Lost Ground: America's Landslide Crisis" investigation exposed a national… Read more »

At the start of the year, Medicare launched an artificial intelligence-enabled prior authorization program for certain medical services in six states, including Washington. The program has since sparked controversy as patients and doctors reported significant delays and denials, leaving many in pain while they waited out lengthy appeals processes. In response to a lawsuit, the Centers… Read more »

The rollout of a Medicare program that uses artificial intelligence to approve or deny care was hasty and error-ridden, according to more than a thousand pages of recently released documents and data. The pilot program, called the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction model, or WISeR, launched in January and requires health care providers to seek approvals before they can provide… Read more »

A new bipartisan bill aims to ensure tax-exempt status does not equate to a federal government grant or subsidy. Proponents say the statutory clarification is needed to ensure all organizations are not subject to obligations intended only for those that accept federal funds. The Safeguarding America’s Nonprofits Act, H.R. 10148, would add a new provision to IRC § 501 to clarify that an… Read more »

President Donald Trump’s ban on Canadian dairy imports is meant to force Ottawa to open its market to American milk. But Canada regulates its dairy industry in a way that shields its own farmers from foreign price shocks — which, industry groups say, leaves American farmers more exposed than Canadian ones. Trump signed the proclamation on Tuesday, banning all Canadian dairy products —… Read more »

Lost Ground: The hidden danger beneath us Deadly landslides reveal a larger problem: Communities across America may be living with risks they don't know exist. Watch here.  Read more »