ADVOCACY SPOTLIGHT


164 members of Congress. The main bills discussed during these meet- ings were the Removing Barriers to Colorectal Cancer Screening Act and the ASC Quality and Access Act. Unfortunately, this advocacy trip coincided with the start of the impeachment proceedings by House Democratic members. Consideration of the President’s impeachment con- sumed the end of the first session of Congress, with the House passing along party lines articles of impeach- ment in mid-December.


The Second Session of the 116th Congress The impeachment trial began in the Senate the first week of January 2020 and continued to receive members undivided attention in both chambers. The Senate voted along party lines to acquit the president in early February however, members did not have much of an opportunity to revert to regular order, as the coronavirus pandemic soon engulfed the nation.


COVID-19 Relief March to May 2020 was a truly unpar- alleled and unique time on the federal legislative level. By mid-March, the Capitol complex was closed to vis- itors and Congress was continually working on a series of bills to provide communities support and relief from the virus’s impacts. The Coronavi- rus Aid, Relief, and Economic Secu- rity (CARES) Act is the most notable of these bills and ushered in the pay- check protection program (PPP) and other forms of relief that your ASC may have used. Please see the Regula- tory Review department on page 21 of the August issue of ASC Focus mag- azine for a more detailed review of the COVID relief bills that Congress passed and ASCA’s advocacy efforts. Work on a fifth bill was in various stages in June and July and members remained focused on COVID-19-re- lated issues in their committee work


Member support is essential to ASCA’s advocacy efforts.”


— Steve Selde, ASCA


and in developing supporting leg- islation. Negotiations on a fifth bill began in earnest in late July following the introduction of a slimmed down relief package by Senate Republicans. These negotiations, however, were brief, with the administration and House Democratic members unable to come to an agreement and ulti- mately ceasing talks in early August.


TRACK THE LATEST REGULATORY AND LEGISLATIVE NEWS FOR ASCs


Visit ASCA’s website every week to stay up to date on the latest government affairs news affecting the ASC industry. Every week, ASCA’s Government Affairs Update newsletter is posted online for ASCA members to read. The weekly newsletter tracks and analyzes the latest legislative and regulatory developments concerning ASCs.


ascassociation.org/ GovtAffairsUpdate


Facility Tours and Advocacy Through the second session, work- ing remotely posed unique chal- lenges and opportunities. In-person meetings on the Hill were impos- sible, but it was simple enough to transition ASCA’s federal advocacy efforts to phone calls and virtual meetings. Unfortunately, ASCA’s 2020 National Advocacy Day, which was originally scheduled for the end of March, was postponed, and with the ongoing nature of the pandemic, never rescheduled for the year. Leading up to August, the ASCA


Government Affairs team recognized that in-person facility tours would be difficult, if not impossible, for ASCs to host. The team adapted the toolkit that was originally developed to assist in holding in-person tours to a version that could be used to host virtual tours in an attempt to maintain this impor- tant form of education and advocacy. This virtual tour program was formally rolled out following ASCA’s virtual annual conference in early July. Facility tours are one of the most


effective ways to educate your rep- resentative or senators about an ASC and the issues it faces. ASCA staff are grateful that the interest and participa- tion in the virtual tour program started off strong despite all of the challenges centers faced during this time. If you are interested in holding a virtual tour and sharing your center’s COVID- 19 experience with your members of Congress, visit the facility tour page on ASCA’s website. Member support is


essential to


ASCA’s advocacy efforts. If you have any questions about how Congress works or are interested in becoming an advocate for the ASC community, write Steve Selde.


Steve Selde is ASCA’s assistant director of Government Affairs. Write him at sselde@ ascassociation.org.


ASC FOCUS JANUARY 2021 | ascfocus.org 31


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38