Welcome back. This week, the Senate Finance Committee will mark up an opioid package. The final text will be important for gauging how close the Senate is to the House package. The House will begin voting on dozens of proposals over the next two weeks, putting them on pace to finish their work by the July the recess. However, the Senate appears to be a littlebehind the House’s timeline. We will also begin to look for signals on other pieces of legislation that could be tied to opioids.

Additionally this week,the HELP Committee will hold a hearing reviewing the Administration ’s effort to lower drug prices with Secretary Azar. The hearing is important to see what issues have traction before key players on the Committee and what, if any, signals the Secretary provides on next steps from the Administration. We also watch to see how Democrats question Azar on his ability to bring down drug prices. This hearing will provide insight to how the Democrats plan to message their ability to address drug pricing and why their solutions would be better than anything from Azar and the Administration.