HEALTHCARE: Healthcare: Week in Review

The pro-Catalan independence Junts teamed up with the main opposition conservative Popular Party (PP) in the Congress of Deputies to deliver a major blow to the coalition gov't of PM Pedro Sanchez. In a 177-171 vote, Junts sided with the opposition to vote down the gov'ts omnibus decree that will halt a planned increase in pension disbursements in line with inflation and cut transport subsidies. 

• The opposition has previously criticised the gov'ts frequent inclusion of a wide range of issues in its decrees, which it says makes it impossible to support. The specific measure, among the 100+ included in the decree, that the PP objected to related to the transfer of a building housing the Instituto Cervantes in Paris to the Basque Nationalist Party.
• Justice and Presidency Minister Felix Bolanos said following the vote that when pensions do not increase in line with inflation "let them remember that it was the PP accompanied by others. [...] when public transport users see that the price of their ticket has increased, let them remember that it was the PP accompanied by others,"
• Catalan News reports "There is growing discontent within Junts over what they see as a failure of the Spanish government to fully implement the agreements reached between them,"
• Should Junts vote with the opposition in any prospective confidence vote, it would be enough to bring down the Sanchez administration. Current opinion polling shows a right-wing PP-Vox coalition as the most likely to hold a majority in a future vote. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is shortly due to hold a House Republican leadership press conference at RNC headquarters in Washington, D.C. where he has promised more details on how Congress intends to legislate President Donald Trump's agenda LIVESTREAM.

• A series of meetings between President Trump and Republican leaders at the White House yesterday appear to have done little to resolve a dispute between the two chambers over the best strategy for reconciliation – the process by which the governing party can pass legislation along party lines. The public standoff indicates that, beyond the political theatre of Trump’s post-inaugural flurry of executive orders, the Republican-controlled Congress is no closer to determining the best way to push Trump’s agenda through the narrowest House majority since 1931.
• Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) both struck a positive tone after the White House meetings, but their comments suggested that a firm agreement hasn’t yet been struck, with Johnson continuing to back a single huge reconciliation bill to cover the bulk of Trump’s agenda and Thune advocating dividing the agenda into two packages. While Trump has offered public support for the one-bill strategy (one big beautiful bill), his backing hasn’t been forceful enough to crystalise a strategy. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday held his first meetings at the State Department, convening a conflab of Indo-Pacific ‘Quad’ foreign ministers. The prioritisation of the Indo-Pacific dialogue alliance indicates continuity with the Biden administration in multilateral partnership with Japan, India, and Australia. 

• Rubio also met bilaterally with his three counterparts and acknowledged the importance of the next Quad Leaders’ Summit, to be hosted by India in September.
• The State Department said in a readout, tracking closely with previous Biden administration statements, that the four ministers reaffirmed their, “shared commitment to strengthening a Free and Open Indo-Pacific where the rule of law, democratic values, sovereignty, and territorial integrity are upheld and defended.”
• A Japanese spokesperson told reporters: “This is a very good example that we can continue this kind of minilateral or multilateral cooperation under the second Trump administration,”
• Trump’s National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, also met with Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya yesterday, potentially starting discussions on a Trump meeting with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in February -  a priority for Tokyo.
• The State Department noted that in his meeting with Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Rubio, “emphasized the Trump Administration’s desire to work with India to advance economic ties and address concerns related to irregular migration,” signalling that the Trump administration is likely to target immigration reform from New Delhi in return for ratcheting up economic cooperation.