BECERRA’S HHS STRUGGLES TO HOUSE MIGRANT CHILDREN — Some White House officials say the health department’s effort to house thousands of unaccompanied minors has been sluggish, amid a record number of children crossing the southern border, Adam, Anita Kumar and Sabrina Rodriguez report. The administration has scrambled to find new shelters and speed the vetting of adults to care for these children. But a month into Becerra’s tenure, some working on the issue have privately questioned his preparedness for managing such a sprawling emergency — and his willingness to take ownership of a historically intractable and politically divisive problem. “He did not fully appreciate the issue when he first came in,” said one senior administration official. “It’s been a steep learning curve for him.” Mark Weber, an HHS spokesperson, conceded that there have been tensions within the administration over the effort generally, but disputed the criticism of Becerra as unfair. “Suggesting he doesn’t have a grasp on the issue … that is not apparent from the inside.” Though Becerra, a former California attorney general with little health policy experience, has been tasked with one of Biden’s most taxing problems, he’s so far stayed out of the public eye. And that low-key approach has raised suspicions among some involved in the immigration effort that he is reluctant to become the face of the administration’s border woes. CDC HUNTS FOR CLUES TO J&J BLOOD CLOT MYSTERY — The CDC’s vaccine advisory panel is set to gather for the second time Friday to discuss the concerns about the shot, according to two senior health officials. But officials are unsure about how many additional cases of post-vaccine blood clots they should expect, Erin Banco, Dan Goldberg, Rachel Roubein and Sarah report. That leaves the CDC to face a logistical challenge. Roughly 7 million Americans have received the J&J vaccine. Federal officials believe that any number of past cases could have been overlooked, and they’re on the lookout for new cases among people vaccinated recently. Meanwhile: States are scrambling to stem the blow to public confidence. “The longer the pause is, the longer it's going to take for us to convince people that this particular vaccine is safe again,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, told POLITICO. “When you have this kind of anti-vaccine aggression out there,” agreed Baylor College vaccine expert Peter Hotez, “it changes the equation. This will be exploited.” BIDEN RESCINDS TEXAS’ TRUMP-ERA MEDICAID WAIVER — The Biden administration has revoked a 10-year waiver for Texas’ Medicaid program , which was hurriedly granted in the final days of the Trump administration, Rachel Roubein reports. As justification for pulling back the waiver, CMS cited a break from the customary approval process, which requires a public health period. The Washington Post first reported the news. The move is politically significant, as the waiver had included substantial funding for health providers to cover the cost of caring for uninsured patients. Biden’s coronavirus relief bill included new incentives for states to take up Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, but that idea still faces a tough road in the dozen mostly conservative-led states that haven’t expanded — including Texas, which has the highest uninsured rate in the country. The view from Texas: Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, blasted the waiver’s rescission, saying the “Biden administration is deliberately betraying Texans who depend on the resources made possible through this waiver.” A state health department spokesperson wrote in an email that the agency is "currently reviewing the information and determining next steps."
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