ASHA Makes Push for Year-End Policy Priorities

November 5, 2026

On November 9, Congress will begin a lame-duck session. During this kind of session, the outgoing Congress meets to complete action on pending legislative and policy priorities before the newly elected incoming Congress convenes in January. Legislation that is not enacted into law before the end of a congressional term must be reintroduced in the next Congress before Congress can take any further action on the issue.

The upcoming lame-duck session will be limited in focus. The only issue Congress must address is extending government funding in one of two ways: by passing individual funding bills for specific federal departments and agencies or by passing an omnibus, or catch-all, spending bill that determines funding levels for all federal programs for a set period. Right now it's unclear exactly how the results of the midterm congressional elections will impact the legislation considered during this period.

The lame-duck session will run at least until government funding for the current fiscal year is extended beyond its current December 11 deadline. This limited time-combined with a coming change in power in the House and Senate and ever-growing tension between parties-means Congress is unlikely to pass a significant amount of legislation.

As a result, ASHA is focusing on the advocacy priorities that are most likely to move the needle before year's end.

What Is ASHA Advocating For?

Although ASHA has had more than 20 specific federal legislative Take Action campaigns for this Congress, the ASHA Advocacy team is now focusing on issues Congress may be likely to act on-either in ways that are helpful or harmful to ASHA's policy priorities.

These issues include:

• Improving Medicare payments;
• Ensuring that audiology and speech-pathology degrees are considered "professional degrees" for federal loan purposes;
• Protecting Medicaid from further funding cuts and program changes;
• Preventing the transfer of U.S. Department of Education offices and programs to other agencies; and
• Blocking the implementation of the Office of Management and Budget proposed rule that would give political appointees expanded veto power over grant funding that is inconsistent with the Administration's political priorities.

What Happens to ASHA's Other Priorities?

ASHA's Government Affairs and Public Policy Board utilized feedback from ASHA members to build the 2027-2028 ASHA Public Policy Agenda (PPA). The PPA outlines ASHA's top federal and state advocacy priorities and provides a framework for the ASHA Advocacy team to develop specific, actionable objectives.

Many of these priorities carry over year after year as we work to build support. That's because legislative advocacy is a long game. It often takes many, many years to achieve one priority.

ASHA is already strategizing with congressional supporters and allied stakeholders to advance policy priorities for audiologists and SLPs for the next two years.

What Can You Do?

The best way to register your support for federal lawmakers addressing pressing audiology and speech-language pathology issues now is to send Congress a message asking them to protect access to audiology and speech-language pathology services during the lame duck session.

Questions?

Please contact Jerry White, ASHA's senior director of federal and political affairs, at [email protected] if you have any questions or for more information.