The new crop of Democratic House members joining House panels that oversee health policy have interests including PBMs, drug pricing and reproductive health, Victoria reports.

Why it matters: Even though Democrats are in the minority, they may find common ground with Republicans on PBM reform or ways to promote innovation in medical research.

Here's whom to know:

House Energy and Commerce Committee

Jake Auchincloss

• The third-term Massachusetts lawmaker became more active on health policy in the last Congress, especially on PBMs.
• He sponsored the Pharmacists Fight Back Act with Rep. Diana Harshbarger, which is being branded as the "most comprehensive PBM reform" bill and includes policies on spread pricing, delinking companies' compensation, rebate pass-throughs and transparent reimbursement.
• Auchincloss also cosponsored the DRUG Act, which would implement delinking requirements in the commercial insurance market.

Kevin Mullin

• Mullin, who represents South San Francisco, will look out for California biotech interests now that Anna Eshoo has retired from Congress.
• The second-term congressman cites advancing medical research and maintaining innovation among his priorities and has joined the Biomedical Research, Rare Disease and Personalized Medicine caucuses.
• His office shared that he wears hearing aids in both ears and is intent on advocating for disability rights and the hard-of-hearing community.

Greg Landsman

• The second-term congressman from Ohio also signed on to PBM legislation in the last Congress.
• He cosponsored the Medicare PBM Accountability Act, which would require PBMs to report their cost savings and is similar to the Senate Finance Committee's MEPA package.

Jennifer McClellan

• The second-term lawmaker from Virginia has been active on abortion rights and reproductive health care, both in her time in the state legislature and in the previous Congress.
• She has cosponsored legislation on increasing access to birth control and IVF, studying uterine cancer and uterine fibroids, protecting maternal health and expanding the Medicare drug price negotiation program.

House Ways and Means Committee

Brendan Boyle

• Boyle is the ranking member of the House Budget Committee and has been vocal in opposing some of the health policies floated by GOP Chair Jodey Arrington in the last Congress. He's also a member of the Ways and Means health subcommittee.
• House Budget Democrats under Boyle previously criticized Medicare site-neutral payments in a report, characterizing them as payment cuts to providers. Site-neutral policies often have bipartisan support.
• He's also active in advocating for lung cancer study and prevention.

Stacey Plaskett

• Plaskett is the non-voting delegate from the U.S. Virgin Islands.
• She's emphasized how she secured a permanent extension of the Medicaid federal funding rate in the Virgin Islands to 83%, and has cosponsored legislation on reproductive and maternal health.

There are new Democratic members on the Senate committees that preside over health policy, though some are familiar faces from past health debates, Peter reports.

Here's whom to watch:

Senate Finance Committee

Bernie Sanders

• Sanders is well-known in health policy from his time as HELP Committee chair but now will also sit on the Finance Committee, which oversees one of his priorities, Medicare.
• Sanders said in a statement that he would focus on stopping "the privatization of Medicare," and would seek to expand the program to cover dental, hearing, vision and home care.
• He also wants to "move toward" Medicare for All.

Raphael Warnock

• Warnock hails from a state that has not fully expanded Medicaid, so furthering the scope of the safety net program in the 10 non-expansion states is a priority.
• He has also been active in fighting diabetes and lowering the cost of insulin, leading one of the bills to extend the $35 cap beyond Medicare.
• "I will be a guardian on the committee against any efforts to gut critical safety net programs like Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare," he said in a statement.

Peter Welch

• Both Vermont senators are on Finance, and Welch was an active player on health care dating to his House days, where he was a leading advocate for Medicare negotiating drug prices.
• Aaron White, a Welch spokesperson, said his priorities are to "ensure physicians are getting paid fairly, support independent and rural pharmacies, and lower drug prices — including by cracking down on the abusive PBM practices."

Senate HELP Committee

Andy Kim

• Kim is from New Jersey, home to many pharmaceutical companies, but is seen as less of an ally of the industry than his predecessor, Bob Menendez.
• Kim has championed the IRA provisions allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, for example.
• He also was first elected to the House in 2018, riding the wave of backlash to Affordable Care Act repeal efforts. He said in a statement that care is still "too expensive" and "too complicated."

Angela Alsobrooks

• Unlike the other new members, Alsobrooks does not have a background in Congress.
• During her campaign last year, she called for a "Medicare buy-in" option, which her website said "balances the critical need to cover all Americans while driving down costs of private insurance and ensuring those who enjoy their current insurance plans can continue to do so."
• She has also called for caps on out-of-pocket health costs and expanding drug price negotiations.

Lisa Blunt Rochester

• Blunt Rochester is another lawmaker making the jump from the House to the Senate this year. She put a focus on health care issues including maternal mortality in the lower chamber.
• Her office said her priorities in the Senate will include reforming PBMs, building the health care workforce, funding health centers, and fighting cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and the IRA.

Rep. Jen Kiggans is leading an early effort in the new Congress to address health care worker shortages with a bill first shared with Victoria.

Why it matters: The availability of doctors, nurses and other health professionals remains a major issue in some areas, with ranks thinned by excessive workloads, administrative burdens and lingering fallout from the pandemic.

What's inside: Kiggans' bill would enable nurses who serve as clinical preceptors to receive a $2,000 tax credit. A preceptor is a clinician who teaches and coaches nursing students during their rotations.

• The goal is to incentivize clinicians to train more nursing students to enter the workforce.
• The preceptors have to work at least 200 hours in a designated area that's experiencing a shortage of workers, and the program would run through 2030.

Other bill sponsors are Reps. Claudia Tenney, Dave Joyce and Jim Costa. A bipartisan companion bill is due to be introduced in the Senate this week, Kiggans' office said.

Between the lines: Kiggans, who is in her second term, is one of the newer members of Congress who is trying to make her name in the health policy space.

• She's a geriatric nurse practitioner and vice chair of the Congressional Nursing Caucus who introduced five nursing-related bills in the 118th Congress.

1. Nutrition labels: The FDA today proposed front-of-package nutrition labels for most foods in a bid to steer consumers to healthier options.
2. Medical schools: Enrollment of first-year Black and Hispanic medical students fell sharply in the year after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in higher education, Axios' Maya Goldman reports.
3. PBM report: Units of CVS Health, Cigna Group and UnitedHealth Group charged significantly more than the national average acquisition cost on dozens of specialty generic drugs, the FTC said in a report today. More from Bloomberg.