By Megan R. Wilson

Listen to this briefing

• Hemp blitz: Advocates are flooding Capitol Hill to overturn the new 0.4 mg THC cap on hemp products, warning it threatens a $28 billion industry and millions of CBD users.
• CDC edits: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website sudden edits suggesting vaccines might cause autism have alarmed career scientists and
• HSA usage: A new GAO analysis shows HSAs skew toward higher-income, healthier users — with most accounts holding under $1,000 despite GOP hopes to expand their role.

Good afternoon and happy Wednesday. This is the Health Brief newsletter. The delayed jobs report from September shows that hiring was up for sectors including health care and social assistance.

The Washington Post’s Abha Bhattarai wrote about the newly released numbers — and her story has a key quote: “September feels like it was eons ago at this point,” said Daniel Zhao, chief economist at jobs review site Glassdoor. “These numbers are a snapshot from two months ago, and they don’t reflect where we stand now in November.”

→ The medical sector — including hospitals, insurers and health systems — has also been experiencing waves of layoffs throughout 2025. What have you — or your clients — been seeing in your part of the health care world? Shoot me a note.

Do you have any other health policy tips, data points or intel? Are you FDA Commissioner Marty Makary? Let’s talk. You can find me at megan.wilson@washpost.com or message me securely on Signal at megan.434.

A programming note: The Health Brief newsletter will only be publishing on Monday next week. I’ll be returning to your inboxes on Dec. 1.

This newsletter is published by WP Intelligence, The Washington Post’s subscription service for professionals that provides business, policy and thought leaders with actionable insights. WP Intelligence operates independently from The Washington Post newsroom. Learn more about WP Intelligence.

Resin from hemp flowers used in tinctures and other CBD products by Happy Trees Agricultural Supply in Richmond, Va. (Parker Michels-Boyce/For The Washington Post)

	The Lead Brief

The effort to overturn a ban on hemp-derived products containing THC — the psychoactive compound in cannabis — is kicking into high gear, with advocates and consumers inundating Capitol Hill with shoe-leather lobbying, phone calls and emails.

David Crane, who represents the CBD consumer group Coalition for Access Now, tells me the group’s main focus is to “mobilize a flood of feedback” to lawmakers from CBD users talking about the ban on low-THC CBD products — and what that means for millions of people who take it, including veterans and older Americans. “People deserve an alternative somewhere in between ibuprofen and OxyContin,” he said.

→ Congress recently enacted appropriations legislation that bans hemp-derived products with levels of THC above 0.4 mg per container — a level that industry and consumer advocates argue is too low, even for CBD products that don’t get a person high. There’s a one-year phase-in of the language, which started a countdown on the efforts to roll it back.

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Jonathan Miller, general counsel of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, described the level of lobbying as “intense.”

“I'm a Mel Brooks fan, so I’ll say we’re in a period of “High Anxiety,” where people are really nervous about the future [and] are united to take action,” Miller told me in a phone call on Tuesday. He said the group is meeting this week with members of Congress and staff to discuss potential legislative proposals.

“We've got to have these meetings with potential bill sponsors and see what they’re comfortable with, but we’re not going to take very long with this because we’ve got 360 days left, and that goes really quickly,” he said.

→ The $28 billion industry isn’t a monolith: Hemp-derived products range from super-high-THC-concentration products such as delta-8 — which lawmakers are afraid are too unregulated, dangerous and accessible to children at places as ubiquitous as gas stations — to non-intoxicating CBD products with lower amounts of THC that people say helps them with anxiety, pain, sleep and other health issues, including seizures.

In the middle are products such as beverages and gummies that produce a mild high. “This is not about the stereotypical teenager trying to get high, but this is about the middle-aged mom who wants to replace a glass of wine with a hemp beverage or a gummy,” said Miller, of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable.

→ Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Virginia), the leader of the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, has been circulating draft legislation that multiple lobbyists say has earned industry support as a potential foundation for what could come next. Among other policies, it would direct the Food and Drug Administration to regulate hemp-derived products. Griffith’s office didn’t return requests for comment.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), who successfully championed the language capping THC in the appropriations bill that funds the USDA, argued it would close a loophole that paved the way for high-THC products while allowing other products to remain. Other groups, including those representing cannabis companies in state-regulated marijuana markets and the distilled spirits industry, supported the changes. Nearly 40 attorneys generals urged Congress to step in.

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	Strategy File

In addition to the advocacy on Capitol Hill, there’s also a focus on getting vocal support from the White House on a measure to regulate the products — which lobbyists believe would tip the scales in their favor.

Team Hemp, a nonprofit group, recently hired three lobbying firms, including MO Strategies, with Rob Goad, a member of the White House’s Domestic Policy Council during President Donald Trump’s first term, on retainer. It also brought on TSG Advocates and Frontline Government Relations.

Team Hemp is “dedicated to ensuring President Trump and his Administration are fully informed about the negative impact of the current legislative language on the hemp sector,” Frontline CEO John Pence, who is also the son of Rep. Greg Pence (R-Indiana) and nephew to former vice president Mike Pence, said in an emailed statement.

Some industry players are looking to make this an issue in the 2026 midterm elections: Team Hemp has a placeholder webpage — which can’t be found through its main site — for political endorsements. Pence didn’t answer questions about how involved the 501(c)4 would be in advertising during the 2026 campaign season. He also didn’t respond to questions about whether he’s involved in running the group.

The group has been holding grassroots Zoom calls to rally farmers, retailers and others on the issue, urging them to contact their representatives. There’s another meeting scheduled for tomorrow.

	Agency Alert

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention abruptly revised its website Wednesday to suggest that vaccines might cause autism — a reversal from decades of scientific consensus and its own previous statements that research shows no link, my Washington Post colleague Lena H. Sun reports.

“The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism,” the webpage reads. “Studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities,” noting that the agency is investigating causes of the disorder.

The new language on the website mirrors long-debunked claims promoted by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., alarming career CDC scientists who told Lena they were not consulted about the changes. The argument about a connection between vaccines and autism stems from a retracted 1998 article that has persisted despite many studies that have since disproved it.

Former senior leaders and vaccine experts warn the edits undermine scientific credibility and public trust, while anti-vaccine advocates cheered the move on social media — arguing it was long overdue.

Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said the agency updated the website “to reflect gold standard, evidence-based science.”

Although the CDC’s header for the website — “Vaccines do not cause Autism” — remains, it’s accompanied by an asterisk. That text, the website points out, has only not been removed because of assurances made to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), leader of the Senate’s health committee, that it would not be taken down.

→ Kennedy had made a number of promises to Cassidy, a physician, in order to secure his confirmation vote, including keeping the language on the website.

The Louisiana Republican pushed back against the website changes in a social media post on Thursday afternoon.

	Document Drop

The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office released a report outlining the function of tax-advantaged health savings accounts — and who typically uses them.

Here are some top-line figures:

• Who uses HSAs: The accounts are “more common among those with higher incomes, Asian or White individuals, those in excellent or very good health, and those with employer-sponsored plans,” GAO found.
• What fees are associated with them?: GAO interviewed nine HSA providers, and all had “at least one fee associated with their HSA” that patients have to pay. Some of them charged monthly maintenance fees that could be waived if people kept their account balance at a certain level. One of the providers charged an annual fee that couldn’t be waived. Five charged a fee to close the HSA account. Three providers — all banks — said they don’t disclose their fees prior to enrollment.
• Can they accrue money?: Some of the accounts offer an interest rate, but the figures are low — similar to a checking account, GAO found. Most of the HSA providers interviewed by the office offered the ability to invest account funds — which allows people to earn investments tax free. However, only a small number of users take advantage, and some consumers may not have high enough balances to qualify: Only 8 percent of HSAs were invested between 2019 and 2023, GAO said, but these accounts made up roughly 38 percent of all HSA assets, according to a Devenir Research report the office cites.
• How much do people keep in them?: Overall, people contributed more to the accounts than they took out. However, the office cites a Devenir Research report that found 63 percent of HSAs had less than $1,000 in the account in December 2022.
• How did people spend the money?: Almost all of HSA-based spending — $25.4 billion — in 2023 went to qualified health expenses. Less than 3 percent – $700 million – was spent on non-qualified purchases, such as cosmetic surgery, that are subject to taxes or fees.

The analysis – which includes data from 2023 and earlier – comes as Republicans increasingly push various proposals to encourage the use of HSAs among people who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. In the GOP’s sprawling tax and domestic policy law passed this summer, lawmakers extended the ability for people in high-deductible bronze plans to obtain them. Now, they’re arguing that giving people more authority over their health care purchases will help bring costs down. 

Democrats are broadly skeptical of the idea, which has emerged as the alternative to extending the enhanced ACA premium tax credits that expire at the end of the year.

“Most HSA accounts have less than $1,000 in them—hardly enough to cover an emergency or the astronomical deductibles that go along with HSAs,” said Rep. Richard Neal (Massachusetts), the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, in a statement. “And at a time when the people are being socked with higher costs everywhere they turn, they don’t have the resources to dedicate to HSAs.”

	What We’re Reading

“Authors of HHS report criticizing youth gender transition care revealed,” Paige Winfield Cunningham and David Ovalle report at The Washington Post.

“How scientists are trying to solve something RFK Jr. hates about your food,” The Washington Post’s Rachel Roubein reports from a lab in Ohio.

“Social Security scraps plan to limit disability benefits after uproar,” Lisa Rein and Meryl Kornfield report for The Washington Post.

“RFK Jr. is in a power struggle: The health secretary and his FDA chief, Marty Makary, can’t agree on how to proceed with vaccine safety studies,” Tim Röhn writes at Politico.

“Senate struggles toward a health care deal,” Burgess Everett details at Semafor.

“The Affordable Care Act’s enhanced subsidies look doomed,” Stephen Neukam, Stef W. Kight, and Peter Sullivan report at Axios.

“Personalized mRNA Vaccines Will Revolutionize Cancer Treatment—If Funding Cuts Don’t Doom Them,” Rowan Moore Gerety writes in Scientific American.

“Abbott to acquire Exact Sciences for about $21B,” Elise Reuter and Susan Kelly write for MedTech Dive.

“US measles cases pass 1,750 as Utah-Arizona outbreak grows,” Stephanie Soucheray writes in a Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy blog post, citing updated CDC data.

“Trump Admin Signals Mysterious ‘Structural Changes’ To SNAP Food Benefits,” Arthur Delaney writes at HuffPost.