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With Alice Miranda Ollstein, Daniel Payne and Carmen Paun

CHILD CARE IN THE SPOTLIGHT — The administration’s $16 million request to support the child care industry will be a focal point of Wednesday’s Senate appropriations hearing, Chelsea and Carmen report. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas are set to testify.

Two months after Covid-era support to the industry expired, Becerra plans to tell Congress that the funding will boost the child care sector and keep providers from closing their doors or raising costs.

Background: President Joe Biden requested the money in October after funding from the American Rescue Act ended. The $16 million is expected to cover one additional year.

An HHS spokesperson told Pulse that Becerra will defend the funding request as an economic boon to families so they can continue working or attending school. Without funding, at least tens of thousands of kids would lose childcare, Becerra will say.

However, the request faces steep odds in the GOP-led House.

Illicit fentanyl, the border and states: The synthetic opioid that’s driven a record number of overdose deaths in the U.S. for the past few years will likely feature prominently in the hearing, too. The White House asked Congress in late October for $1.2 billion in supplemental funding for fiscal 2024 to the Department of Homeland Security to stop the flow of fentanyl at America’s southwest border.

The money would go toward hiring 1,000 more Customs and Border Protection officers and giving more resources to investigate drug trafficking. It would also help fund more high tech machines to detect fentanyl at entry ports.

The Biden administration also asked Congress for an additional $1.55 billion in supplemental funding to help states and territories provide treatment, harm-reduction and recovery support services to people with opioid use disorder. The money would go to HHS.

WELCOME TO ELECTION DAY PULSE. Which races are you watching tonight? Send your tips, scoops and feedback to [email protected] and [email protected] and follow along @ChelseaCirruzzo and @_BenLeonard_.

TODAY ON OUR PULSE CHECK PODCAST, host Kelly Hooper talks with Chelsea, who reports on a proposed update to the CDC’s infection-control guidelines, which would better help clinicians limit transmission of viral infections in health care facilities.

ELECTION DAY: WHAT TO WATCH — Abortion is a central theme in races across the country today as Democrats look to keep the issue a millstone around Republicans’ necks.

Even in states where the election outcome won’t affect abortion rights, candidates on the left have sought to keep the issue front and center, believing it will propel their victories as it did for many Democrats in 2022.

Republicans, meanwhile, are eager to show they have a strategy to neutralize an issue that’s been a big winner for Democrats. Tonight’s results will go a long way toward determining how both parties campaign next year.

— Ohio: Voters will decide whether to enshrine abortion protections into the state constitution or be the first to reject an abortion-rights measure since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Ohio’s six-week abortion ban, with no exemptions for rape or incest, has been blocked by courts for more than a year but could go back into effect if the amendment doesn’t pass, Alice reports.

The vote culminates a long, bitter and expensive campaign fight. Millions in donations poured in from out of state on both sides of the issue, though the abortion-rights side vastly outraised their anti-abortion counterparts.

—Pennsylvania: Four Democrats and two Republicans are on the Pennsylvania state Supreme Court, so the fight for a vacant seat won’t determine the majority. The race pits a Democrat who’s vowed to protect “women’s reproductive rights” against a Republican who has promised to defend “all life under the law,” POLITICO’s Holly Otterbein reports.

—Mississippi and Kentucky: Attorneys general have significant power to enforce (or not) their states’ near-total abortion bans, giving their races high stakes in the post-Roe era. In Mississippi, Democrat Greta Kemp Martin is a longshot to unseat Republican Lynn Fitch, who brought the case that overturned Roe last year. In Kentucky, it’s expected to be a tighter race between state Rep. Pamela Stevenson, a Democrat, and Russell Coleman, a Republican, based on the competitiveness of the governor’s race. Both Democratic candidates have emphasized abortion rights on the campaign trail and pledged not to use the powers of their office to charge abortion providers if elected. The GOP candidates have largely tried to steer the conversation to other topics, though they both have touted their anti-abortion beliefs.

— Virginia: All 140 seats across two legislative chambers are up for grabs as both parties test messages on abortion that we’ll see on a grander scale next year: Democrats are focused on abortion rights, while Republicans rally around a 15-week prohibition championed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, POLITICO’s Zach Montellaro reports.

FIRST IN PULSE: CASSIDY CALLS FOR SUPPORT MARKUP — Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), ranking member of the Senate HELP Committee, is together with 300 organizations calling on the committee to take up the reauthorization of a massive 2018 opioid law providing prevention, treatment and recovery services for people with opioid use disorder, Carmen reports.

The SUPPORT Act expired on Sept 30, but the committee’s chair, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), hasn’t acted to reauthorize it despite an estimated 110,000 people dying of a drug overdose last year. “We’re working on a myriad of problems,” Sanders told POLITICO in October after listing his efforts to shore up the primary care system and lower drug prices.

“I appreciate the support from the advocates expressing the urgency of this problem,” Cassidy said in a statement, listing the organizations that called for the law’s renewal, which include the American Society of Addiction Medicine, the Drug and Alcohol Service Providers Organization of Pennsylvania and the National Safety Council.

“Even if there are some differences in opinion on specific policies to include, we all agree the HELP Committee needs to get the SUPPORT Act reauthorization done,” Cassidy said.

TESTING TRAVELERS — The CDC has started testing incoming international travelers for flu, respiratory syncytial virus and other respiratory illnesses as part of a several monthslong pilot within the Traveler-Based Genomic Surveillance program.

The program has been testing travelers who agree to be checked for Covid-19 at seven major airports since 2021 — enrolling 360,000 passengers since September. It also tests the aircraft and wastewater. The program was the first to raise alarms that a new Covid variant, BA.2.86, had been detected in the U.S.

The addition of flu and RSV to the program comes as the U.S. heads into the winter respiratory infection season, with the CDC predicting similar hospitalization levels to those last year.

Susan Lane Stone has been named CEO and executive director of the National Headache Foundation. Stone has led the organization in an interim capacity since this summer. The National Headache Foundation also added Hope O’Brien, founder of the Headache Center of Hope in Cincinnati and an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, to its board.

POLITICO’s Erin Schumaker reports on one senator’s push to alleviate loneliness.

The Washington Post reports that people who experienced trauma as a child are more likely to experience severe headaches in adulthood.

STAT reports on an experimental treatment helping an ALS patient walk again.