The mid-term elections results are in for the most part, and of course the Democrats will control the House of Representatives in the 110th Congress, and they may wind up controlling the Senate as well. Reporters at Govexec.com have begun to prognosticate about the impact that the new House leadership will have on federal employees.

There likely will be plenty of time for prognostication as the common wisdom is that the lame duck session of Congress will be very brief, e.g., simply extending the current continuing resolution funding the federal government into January. This would allow the new Congress to take up the appropriations issues as well as many other issues discussed in this blog == health information technology, Medicare, and the Food & Drug Administration’s drug review process. For example, likely House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D Cal.) is a major advocate for CMS directly negotiating drug prices with the drug manufacturers in the Medicare Part D program. Also Rep. Nancy Johnson (D Conn.) who was a major force behind the push to accelerate implementation of the ICD 10 not only lost her Ways and Means Health Subcommittee chair, but she also lost her seat in Congress.