Most GOP members not holding town halls Presented by

Ex-president Barack Obama urges Congress to protect the ACA, and the White House says plans to gut the drug control office are preliminary. But first: Congress may be on recess, but Republicans' town hall schedule is looking thin.

MOST GOP MEMBERS NOT HOLDING TOWN HALLS — They cheered on the House floor and celebrated at the Rose Garden, but most Republicans who voted for the health bill aren't holding town halls to talk about it.

A POLITICO review of TownHallProject.com, a crowd-sourced database, found that only 14 of the 217 House Republicans who voted for the bill last week — less than 7 percent — are listed as holding town halls with their constituents. Health care advocates we contacted said the Town Hall Project's database aligned with their own lists.

… Top Republicans encouraged House members to engage with their constituents. "I think it should be something that Republicans should run to, not away from," White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

… House Democrats and liberal advocates have signaled they'll go to districts where there are no town halls to talk about the health bill. Andy Slavitt, who ran CMS under the Obama administration, told PULSE he's going to "dedicate myself to going after the weasliest yes voters."

The activist left is mobilizing to save Obamacare. They insist that the nation’s sprawling liberal grass roots is ready for both battles and is far from discouraged by last week’s loss, POLITICO's Elana Schor reports. And by continuing to vent anger at House Republicans who voted for the bill, they say, they’ll show centrist GOP senators the price of going down a similar path. More.

Among the town halls today

— Energy & Commerce Chair Greg Walden (R-Ore.)

— Reps. Steve Womack and Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.)

— Rep. Rod Blum (R-Iowa)

BARACK OBAMA: CONGRESS MUST SHOW 'POLITICAL COURAGE' ON ACA — The former president made his first public comments on Republicans' efforts on Sunday night at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, where he was awarded the Profiles in Courage award. According to Obama, lawmakers should exercise the "political courage" to not repeal the law.

"I hope that current members of Congress recognize it takes little courage to aid those who are already powerful, already comfortable, already influential — but it takes great courage to champion the vulnerable and the sick and the infirm," Obama said in a speech in Boston. More.

IT'S TRUMPCARE NOW — The House Republican vote to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act means the GOP has taken ownership of the Affordable Care Act. What that means: They have to answer for every problem with the health care law, Pro's Jen Haberkorn writes.

That includes all the pain points: the premium increases due to materialize this summer, more insurers leaving the markets, and regions where no one is willing to sell coverage at all anymore.

“Look, I’m a Republican," said Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas), a prominent health care leader in the House. "I accept the fact that any blame there is to receive, we will receive it — regardless of where it comes from or [how] it's attributed." Keep reading: More for Pros.

HOW THE SENATE'S PROCEEDING: SLOWLY — They've broken into multiple working groups and show no signs of rushing, Jen and Burgess Everett report. They need to get 50 votes — and there are only 52 Republican senators.

— Group one: Mitch McConnell, Lamar Alexander, Orrin Hatch and 10 more. White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said he spoke to this group on Saturday, which includes some of the chamber's senior leaders. Members are disproportionately from states that didn't expand Medicaid through the ACA.

— Group two: Susan Collins, Bill Cassidy, Shelley Moore Capito and more. Collins and Cassidy are two of the biggest critics of the House plan and have their own proposal — which would allow states that like Obamacare to keep it, essentially. More for Pros.

Left launching ad blitz to punish Republicans backing Obamacare repeal. Save My Care, a coalition of pro-Obamacare advocacy groups, is launching a $500,000-plus TV ad campaign in five congressional districts held by Republicans who backed the GOP plan, the American Health Care Act, POLITICO's Kyle Cheney reports.

The ads target Reps. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), Bruce Poliquin (R-Maine), Don Young (R-Alaska), Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) and Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.).

The ad doesn't mention Obamacare, but accuses lawmakers of repealing "health care" and supporting a "disastrous" bill opposed by the American Medical Association, AARP and the American Cancer Society. See the ad.

WHITE HOUSE SAYS PLAN TO GUT DRUG CONTROL OFFICE IS PRELIMINARY — Appearing on several Sunday shows, top officials confirmed the existence of a proposal to cut funding to the Office of National Drug Control Policy by nearly 95 percent, but backed away from whether it's final.

"It’s a leaked document," White House chief of staff Reince Priebus repeated several times on "Fox News Sunday," adding that "nothing is finalized." But Priebus signaled that cuts were still likely. "We have duplicative services in this regard all over the place," he said.

On NBC's "Meet the Press," HHS Secretary Tom Price echoed Priebus's comments and called fighting opioids "one of the top three priorities" for his agency.

… The plan was first reported by POLITICO on Friday, although White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders questioned the authenticity of the report when asked about it at the press briefing. Soon after, the New York Times, the Washington Post and other organizations corroborated POLITICO's report.

… Advocates say that the plan is the latest alarming step for drug policy after the administration's moves to roll back Medicaid expansion, fire the Surgeon General who led a landmark study on addiction, propose cuts to public health (and want to invest in the border wall in part to fight the U.S. drug problem) and resurrect "War on Drugs"-style rhetoric.

“These moves fly in the face of President Trump’s promise to address the nation's opioid epidemic,” said Rafael Lemaitre, who was a senior official with the drug policy office across three administrations. "This is an epidemic that steals as many lives as the Vietnam War took during the entire conflict, and Trump's moves remove some of the most effective tools." More.

THIS IS MONDAY PULSE — Where we noticed that Huckabee Sanders, minutes after questioning POLITICO's drug office report, falsely claimed that manufacturing, coal mining and "other" places were responsible for the "most growth" in Friday's jobs report. They weren't: Manufacturing added 6,000 jobs and coal mining added 200 jobs, while the rest of the jobs report added more than 200,000 jobs.

Meanwhile, health care alone added 19,500 jobs — although advocates say that the sector's job growth will fall if Republicans' health bill is passed.

You can always shoot straight with PULSE: Send tips to [email protected] or @ddiamond on Twitter.

A message from PhRMA: Today, there are several promising vaccine candidates in stage three clinical trials. These trials have tens of thousands of participants, from every walk of life. From development to robust clinical trials, and throughout manufacturing, these vaccine candidates follow the same rigorous process of other vaccines that have saved millions of lives. More.

ON TAP THIS WEEK

— White House health care victory short-lived as Russia probe looms. The administration's focus will shift this week, POLITICO's Matthew Nussbaum reports, partly because the Senate is starting over on health care and partly because Russia’s election interference takes center stage in congressional hearings on Monday. More.

The White House is hopeful for a vote in the Senate by the end of June but also wary of placing deadlines for fear of appearing heavy-handed, a senior administration official said. Priebus on Sunday said he was confident that the Senate would pass a bill.

— Senate to hold vote on Scott Gottlieb today. The chamber will hold a procedural vote on Trump's pick to run FDA, Sarah Karlin-Smith reports.

TOM PRICE: CUTS TO MEDICAID AREN'T A BROKEN PROMISE — The HHS secretary said on Sunday that the bill doesn't violate Trump's repeated promises not to cut Medicaid.

"Are you actually saying that $880 billion in cuts, according to the CBO … that that is actually not going to result in millions of Americans not getting Medicaid?" CNN's Jake Tapper asked.

It is "absolutely not" going to result in a cut, Price responded. "We believe strongly that the Medicaid population that will be cared for in a better way under our program." See video.

… The CBO projected that 14 million fewer people will be covered under Medicaid in a decade by Republicans' plan.

Donald Trump, two years ago on Sunday: "I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid," he tweeted.

MORE ON GOP HEALTH BILL

FIRST IN PULSE: Ranking members call on Senate HELP, Finance to host 'open and transparent debate.'Democratic Sens. Patty Murray and Ron Wyden are petitioning for public hearings on the bill. "It is deeply concerning that legislation with such far-reaching and harmful consequences would be jammed through the House," they write, urging the Senate to go in a different direction. See the letter.

Warren Buffett: Bill is a 'tax cut for people like me.' At the annual shareholder meeting for Berkshire Hathaway, the billionaire investor critiqued Republicans' Obamacare repeal legislation as an effective tax break for billionaires.

He also said that the nation's high rate of health care spending, not taxes, is the biggest financial pressure on U.S. businesses. "Medical costs are the tapeworm of American economic competitiveness," Buffett said. More.

Peter Suderman: Even critics should admit that bill is about taxes. "I have been a critic of Obamacare since it became law, but the Republican alternative is worse in nearly every way," Suderman, a policy wonk and editor at Reason magazine, writes in the Sunday New York Times.

"It’s unclear what health policy problem this bill would solve," he adds. "It makes more sense when you realize that … they were passing a tax cut — one intended to pave the way for more tax cuts." More.

PULSE CHECK

Mario Molina: 'I'm really not sure' if other insurance executives are courageous. The former head of Molina Healthcare, outspoken on the ACA and the GOP health bill's risks, was surprisingly fired last week. He joined PULSE CHECK to discuss his vantage point on the industry and reform, what it's like to meet with Tom Price and why he's so disappointed by insurance executives. Listen here.

AROUND THE NATION

STATE WEEK: Republican governors tread carefully on reform. They're leaning on the Senate to make changes to the House version of the health bill that will protect Medicaid expansion, Pro's Brianna Ehley reports. More for Pros.

Illinois: GOP governor tripped up by abortion politics. Gov. Bruce Rauner is in a no-win situation. He can veto a Democratic-backed measure that would keep abortion legal in Illinois, even if Roe v. Wade is overturned, and fire up his liberal opponents. Or he can side with the measure and further alienate a Republican base that's already skeptical of Rauner's support for Planned Parenthood.

One big factor: Rauner's up for reelection in 2018, and he's a top target for national Democrats, POLITICO's Natasha Korecki reports from Illinois. More.

AROUND TOWN

Wyden blasts pharma conflicts of interest at FDA opioid meeting. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), concerned about conflicts of interest at an FDA workshop on opioids this week, is asking HHS Secretary Price to delay the meeting until a more thorough review of meeting participants can be conducted. More from Sarah Karlin-Smith: More for Pros.

At HHS, the TVs stay tuned to Fox News. The administration on Friday disputed reports that televisions in the FDA's buildings were required to show Fox News rather than other networks. However, multiple sources have told PULSE that the TVs across HHS had stopped their rotation through different channels, as was customary in previous administrations, and settled permanently on Fox News.

PULSE first reported the switchover at the Humphrey Building to Fox News in January, 10 days after Trump's inauguration.

Jim Comey talks cybersecurity at AHA meeting. The FBI director will talk about email security — for hospitals, to be clear — and other security risks at the American Hospital Association meeting at the Washington Hilton this afternoon. VA Secretary David Shulkin also will speak.

WHAT WE'RE READING

Why is Minnesota having its worst measles outbreak in decades? Blame anti-vaccine activists, who scared immigrants away from vaccinating their children, Lena Sun reports in the Washington Post. More.

At Health Affairs, Tim Jost breaks down the new executive order that addreses contraception. More.

The White House is hoping to use insurance-market woes to help get AHCA over the hurdles in the Senate, WSJ’s Louise Radnofsky and Michael Bender report. More

What happens when a sales executive for a painkiller is addicted to painkillers himself? STAT’s David Armstrong has a look at the remarkable story. More.

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