BREYER SET TO RETIRE: WHAT IT MEANS — Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer plans to retire soon, potentially handing President Joe Biden a Supreme Court seat during a heated battle over abortion rights and a slew of cases with the potential to reshape health care and worker’s rights. The court’s oldest justice at 83, Breyer weathered a year of pressure from liberal legal activists pressing the Clinton appointee to step aside and clear the way for Biden to appoint a younger justice, POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein and Jonathan Lemire write. Biden pledged during his 2020 presidential campaign to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court, a promise the president “certainly stands by,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday. And yet: Although neither Breyer nor a spokesperson for the court confirmed the move Wednesday, Biden faces a long battle to appoint any new judge. Democrats’ razor-thin majority would make history if it confirms a successor — a 50-50 Senate has never done it before, congressional reporters Marianne Levine and Burgess Everett write. In essence, the White House needs a judge who is guaranteed to garner support from every member of the Democratic caucus. That said, Democrats have some comfort as long as they stay unified — Republicans can’t stop Breyer’s successor because the GOP scrapped the 60-vote threshold on high court nominees in 2017. In the meantime: Abortion rights hang in the balance as the conservative-leaning court — regardless of Breyer’s status — prepare to hear a Mississippi case that could reshape and severely limit abortion access. “The news of Breyer’s retirement comes at a critical moment in the fight for our fundamental rights and freedoms,” pro-abortion group NARAL Pro-Choice America wrote in an email. Democratic senators also issued a flurry of statements urging rapid action amid health care and voting rights’ battles. But even if Biden acted today, it’s virtually impossible to believe a new justice would be in place before the key hearings this year. USDA UNVEILS RURAL HEALTH INVESTMENTS — Agriculture deputy secretary Jewel Bronaugh announced on Wednesday a $1 billion investment out of the fiscal 2022 budget to help improve and build infrastructure in rural areas with an emphasis on healthcare facilities. In the details: Forty-eight states and Puerto Rico and Guam are slated to receive some of the funding for more than 730 projects that range from hospital expansions and construction to medical and firefighting equipment purchases, Ximena writes. “These loans and grants will help rural communities invest in facilities and services that are vital to all communities, such as health care facilities, schools, libraries, and first responder vehicles and equipment,” Bronaugh said in a statement. The announcement came after the deputy’s visit to a Bessemer-area hospital in Alabama alongside Undersecretary for Rural Development Xochitl Torres Small. Alabama will receive more than $350 million to strengthen access to health care in rural communities in the state, according to the department. MORE EVIDENCE FOR BOOSTERS, MIX-AND-MATCH — The data pans out for getting a booster vaccine , even if it’s not your original shot, the National Institutes of Health said Wednesday as clinical trial results were published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Those findings already formed the foundation for Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance recommending broad booster dosing, though uptake has been slow. What they found: The study enrolled 458 adults split about evenly to receive booster doses made by Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech, or Johnson & Johnson. Some got the vaccine they’d initially received, while others got a different shot. All combinations of primary and booster vaccines increased antibody levels; researchers concluded that both uniform regimens and mix-and-match “will increase protective efficacy” against the virus. Participants also kept diaries, and while more than half reported headache and muscle pains, no one had serious side effects.
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