A Single Senator Is Blocking Reform Of The Foster Care System

WASHINGTON ― In the waning days of 2016, a moribund Congress has woken up. A long-sought measure to spend a billion dollars to combat the opioid epidemic won bipartisan approval and is headed for passage. Vice President Joe Biden’s cancer-cure “moonshot” was funded at more than a billion, and the cash-strapped National Institutes of Health got an infusion of federal money.

Big Pharma got a few things it had been looking for in the 21st Century Cures Act, as did the mental health community. Coal miners whose health care was running out got $45 million so they can stay covered. President-elect Donald Trump got a waiver for his secretary of Defense pick, retired Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis, who would otherwise be legally barred from serving because he hadn’t been out of the military long enough.