FIERCE Healthcare by Emma Beavins
The Democratic Women’s Caucus denounced the actions President Donald Trump and his task force called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have unilaterally taken to enact policies without the oversight of Congress and claim these actions are harmful to women and children.
The Democratic Women’s Caucus is made up of nearly 100 members of Congress that advocate for favorable policies for women and children within their respective committees of jurisdiction in Congress, from the government oversight committee to the ways and means committee.
During a press briefing on Friday, congresswomen from eight districts spanning from California to Georgia criticized actions taken by Trump and Elon Musk, who the president tapped to lead the DOGE, they argue have jeopardized federal healthcare programs and put the operation of federal research and public health agencies at risk.
Rep. Hillary Scholten, from Michigan, said the rights of women and girls and their access to critical resources have come under attack amid the chaotic start to Trump’s second term.
“The chaos of this administration does nothing to help women and working families across the country,” Scholten said. “They think that by freezing federal funding and seizing independent agencies taking money that was democratically allocated through Congress to help working families, that they are going to somehow help working families. They will distract us from the fact that they're nominating Cabinet picks who believe that women don't belong in the workforce, in voting booths or military uniforms,” she said.
The caucus sent a letter to Trump in his first week requesting a meeting within his first 100 days and asking him to work with them on policies to support women and children. He has not replied, the caucus leaders said Friday.
The caucus members talked at length about Trump’s attempted freeze on all federal grants, which only lasted a day before a federal judge in D.C. temporarily blocked the order, but nonetheless has continued to affect the operations of healthcare grant recipients.
Nationwide, state Medicaid portals were inaccessible for a period of hours on Tuesday, Jan. 29. The next day, Republicans lawmakers, Trump and health secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the freeze was not supposed to impact Medicaid.
The Democratic congresswomen fielded calls from constituents across the country. A woman in Maryland called her congresswoman, Rep. April McClain Delaney, to say she hadn’t been able to start a clinical trial because of the funding freeze. Rep. Deborah Ross, from North Carolina, said the funding freeze attempted to target funding for women's shelters and survivors of abuse in her state.
Link to full article: https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/regulatory/democratic-womens-caucus-sounds-alarms-trump-musk-impact-women-and-children