Weekend update

Congress remains in session on Capitol Hill this coming week. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will be hold a postal reform hearing on Tuesday March 12 at 2:30 pm.  OPM Acting Director Margaret Weichert is one of the witnesses at that hearing. Here’s a link to the Week in Congress’s report on last week’s Congressional actions.

The President’s Fiscal Year 2020 proposed budget will be released in two steps beginning tomorrow. Bloomberg Government reports

Government management is going to be highlighted in President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2020 budget set for release on March 11, but the centerpiece will be the follow-up to the sweeping overhaul and reorganization plan put out in June 2018, said the official who is familiar with the budget plan.

Where the 2018 plan listed 34 reorganization proposals, this year will focus on the merger of the Office of Personnel Management into a single entity within the General Services Administration, the agency primarily responsible for federal buildings and support services.

That section of the budget proposal will be worth checking out.

Healthcare Dive reports on favorable financial prospects for healthcare payers in 2019 although it opines that payers are facing strong headwinds beginning in 2020. Surprisingly the article does not mention the ill advised Medicare for All movement which would torpedo the privacy healthcare payer industry, including as the FEHBP and Medicare Advantage.