The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program offers free tax help to people who generally make $57,000 or less, persons with disabilities, and limited English-speaking taxpayers who need assistance in preparing their own tax returns. IRS-certified volunteers provide free basic income tax return preparation with electronic filing for qualified individuals. Click here to find a location.

The Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s America Act, or LIFT America Act, was introduced by Democratic members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In addition to provisions to modernize the nation’s infrastructure, combat climate change, and invest in public health, the $312 billion infrastructure package includes $10 billion in funding for Community Health Center capital project grants as part of a $30 billion investment in health infrastructure and $80 billion for the deployment of secure and resilient high-speed broadband to expand access nationwide. The Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on the legislation on March 22, 2021.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf this week announced his intention to nominate Meg Snead to serve as the next Secretary of the Department of Human Services (DHS). Snead’s nomination comes after current DHS Secretary Teresa Miller announced her departure from the administration effective April 30, 2021. Most recently, Snead served as Gov. Wolf’s Secretary of Policy and Planning overseeing the administration’s development and implementation of policy priorities, including the COVID-19 pandemic response, ensuring access to health care, and breaking barriers to critical human services. Snead comes to Pennsylvania with a background in affordable housing, homelessness, and health care policy, having spent 10 years working in the nonprofit industry in the Denver area.

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services (L-HHS) held a hearing on “Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis.” During the hearing, Members largely focused their remarks on how the current maternal health crisis is an issue of health equity. Notably, Chairwoman Delauro noted that the crisis is also a distinctly rural issue with hospital closures and declining access to maternal health services in rural areas is negatively impacting rural maternal health outcomes. You can find a Twitter thread created by the NRHA government affairs team on the hearing here.

The Senate voted 52-48 to confirm Dr. Rachel Levine as the HHS Assistant Secretary of Health (ASH). She is the first openly transgender federal official ever confirmed by the Senate. In a Daily Yonder op-ed, Brock Slabach, NRHA Senior Vice President of Member Services, explained that, “[Dr. Levine] helped enact a new system for stabilizing revenue for rural hospitals. She’s the right person to serve as [the HHS ASH].” Additionally, the Senate voted 57-43 to confirm Dr. Vivek Murthy as Surgeon General, who previously served as Surgeon General in the Obama Administration.

Representatives Dan Kildee (D-MI) and Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) announced the introduction of their bipartisan bill: The Rural Behavioral Health Access Act. This legislation would ensure that Critical Access Hospitals (CAH) retain important flexibility to provide behavioral health services through telehealth after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. NRHA had the opportunity to host the introduction event for this important piece of legislation yesterday. You can watch the recording of the event featuring Representatives Kildee and Wenstrup here, and you can find the bill one-pager here and the full legislative text here.

The Senate passed H.R. 1868, a bill to provide continued relief from Medicare sequestration and technical corrections to the rural health clinics (RHC) provisions included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA), 2021. The measure must go back to the House of Representatives before becoming law due to changes in the text regarding Medicare sequestration. NRHA anticipates the House will take the measure up when they return from recess on April 12, 2021. CMS has said they will not proceed with actions contradictory to the pending legislation in the meantime.