NC lawmakers weigh Helene aid, await federal funds

President Donald Trump said Thursday he nominated Medicare director and former health care executive Chris Klomp to serve as deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The deputy secretary oversees operations and regulatory policy. If confirmed by the Senate, Klomp would serve as second in command to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom he has advised for several months.

“HHS is a massive and complex organization, but Chris knows exactly how to run it,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. He added that he, Kennedy, and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz “made this decision together!”

The department has been without a deputy secretary since Jim O’Neill left in February in a broader leadership shakeup that was partly intended to refocus health care messaging on lower costs and the TrumpRx program.

Klomp had served as Medicare director since April 2025. In February, he was chosen to oversee Health and Human Services operations and advise Kennedy. In that role, he was involved in the administration’s efforts to reach TrumpRx agreements with drug companies and develop Trump’s most-favored nations plan to lower prescription drug costs.

“Chris Klomp has been unbelievable, a real star,” Trump said during a White House event in April about a deal with Regeneron. “You don’t know his name as much as some of the others, but he’s a real star of the group.”

At the department, Klomp led this year’s searches for candidates to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the surgeon general’s office. In April, Trump nominated public health veteran Dr. Erica Schwartz for CDC director and Fox News contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier for surgeon general. Both are awaiting Senate confirmation hearings.

Klomp was also involved in the search for a replacement for former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, who stepped down in May.

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and 14 Democratic co-sponsors planned to introduce legislation Thursday to cap out-of-pocket costs in traditional Medicare, reviving a long-running debate over whether the program should limit beneficiary spending.

Supporters said passage this year was unlikely, but the proposal would give Democrats another chance to focus on health care affordability ahead of the November election. A recent Gallup survey found fewer than half of Americans said they could consistently afford health care.

Traditional Medicare generally requires beneficiaries to pay 20% of medical service costs after deductibles, with no overall cap. Wyden’s bill would set a $5,000 annual limit. Amounts paid by Medigap plans or retiree health plans would count toward that cap, and Medicare would cover costs above it.

The bill would also eliminate an asset test for certain programs that help lower-income older adults with Medicare costs.

About 43% of traditional Medicare enrollees buy supplemental Medigap coverage, while others receive retiree coverage through former employers. Backers of a cap said it could reduce demand for costly supplemental insurance and narrow differences between traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage, the private-plan alternative, which already has annual out-of-pocket limits. Congress set the current maximum for Medicare Advantage plans at $9,250, though insurers may offer lower caps.

More than half of Medicare enrollees were in Medicare Advantage plans, which often include extra benefits such as vision, hearing, and prescription drug coverage. The plans have also drawn scrutiny over service denials, prior authorization requirements, and payment disputes with health systems.

Analysts said a cap would increase federal spending as Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund was projected to begin falling short in 2033.

A Brown University study found a $5,000 cap could save traditional Medicare enrollees about $1,200 a year on average, including lower Medigap premiums. It estimated that about 3.2 million beneficiaries, or just over 11%, would directly benefit in 2028, and that more than 52% would exceed the cap at least once over 10 years.

Lead author Andrew Ryan of Brown’s School of Public Health said a cap “could cost over $50 billion annually, which is a lot of money.” Jackson Hammond of the conservative Paragon Health Institute said a cap “is generally going to increase expenses for the program without adding a lot of benefits to enrollees.”

Wyden said he expected a broader push in the next Congress.

A proposed data center project in Box Elder County, Utah, became a central issue in Tuesday’s Republican primary, where Senate President Stuart Adams lost to challenger Stephanie Hollist.

Adams, the longest-serving president in Utah Senate history, lost after his support for the Stratos project drew opposition from some voters. Hollist, a former university lawyer, opposed the development and said Adams and other state leaders had not addressed public concerns.

Adams had previously won reelection easily in the heavily Republican state. But as head of the Utah Military Installation Development Authority, which approved initial plans for the project earlier this year, he became closely tied to the proposal.

Two Box Elder County commissioners who voted to allow the plans to move forward, Boyd Bingham and Lee Perry, also lost their primaries.

“Do I think that the data center vote cost me the election? Yes I do,” Perry told The Salt Lake Tribune after conceding on Wednesday. “Would I do anything different? … I wouldn’t vote differently, but I would push back against the state and make them come out publicly and tell everybody why they’re forcing it down our throat.”

The Stratos project, backed by investor and “Shark Tank” personality Kevin O’Leary, is expected to be one of the world’s largest artificial intelligence data centers, with multiple sites planned across Utah.

Opponents said the project could put pressure on water supplies near the Great Salt Lake and use large amounts of electricity. Developers said it would create jobs and generate millions of dollars in tax revenue.

In the final weeks of his campaign, Adams called for major reductions to the project’s proposed 40,000-acre footprint.