Human Services & Education Policy Steering Committee

On November 5, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that all 50 states submitted applications for the Rural Health Transformation (RHT) Program.

On November 12, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass a Continuing Resolution and funding package (CR) to end the shutdown of the federal government that began October 1. 

On October 8 and 9, the U.S. Congress passed resolutions under Congressional Review Act authority expressing disapproval of three Bureau of Land Management resource management plans covering public lands in Montana, Alaska and North Dakota. The resolutions repeal recently finalized resource management plans and revert the areas to prior land use plans.

On November 3, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it would not develop a national recovery plan for the gray wolf, which is currently considered endangered under the Endangered Species Act in much of the contiguous United States. The Service’s assessment, which determines that a nationwide recovery plan is no longer necessary for gray wolves, is consistent with previous federal agency findings that the species no longer warrant endangered or threatened species protection.