The Department of Veterans Affairs has opened dozens of new health centers for veterans but cannot find enough doctors and support staff to operate them, according to CNN as cited in MedPage Today's weekly Washington Watch roundup. The staffing shortfall threatens the functioning of the newly built facilities.
In politics, the Make America Healthy Again movement is turning on its leader—and it's not HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Politico reported. The source does not specify who the target is, but the split suggests internal turmoil within the movement.
The NIH spent its entire $34 billion extramural research budget for fiscal year 2026, funding roughly 58,000 projects—a slight drop from the 61,000 awarded the prior year, STAT reported. The agency is also launching a vaccine injury study and redesigning its website around eight "hubs" including health, research, data, and cancer, shifting focus away from individual institutes.
Other items in the roundup include a Government Accountability Office finding that President Trump cannot withhold more than $800 million in congressionally approved agency funding, and bipartisan Senate efforts to prevent political influence over NIH grant-making. A federal appeals panel also heard arguments in the American Academy of Pediatrics' lawsuit over changes to the CDC's vaccine advisory committee, and the administration updated its hospital price transparency rule.