Good morning, D.C. In today’s newsletter: Medicaid changes hit a D.C. hospital, the House advances a bill restricting home rule and Tom Sietsema answers your dining questions.
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One of D.C.’s largest hospitals will shutter one of its two postpartum wards on Sunday. It’s the first health provider in the District to reduce service citing, at least in part, recent changes to Medicaid.
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“Similar to hospitals nationwide, we are facing increasing financial pressures, including significant changes in Medicaid that affect all our services,” a spokesperson for MedStar Washington Hospital Center told NOTUS, adding that D.C.’s birth rate is also steadily declining.
President Donald Trump’s “one big beautiful bill,” passed last summer, cut more than $900 billion from Medicaid and changed its eligibility requirements. D.C. officials estimated 95,000 residents were at risk of losing coverage, and the District has seen a 9% reduction in enrollment in the past year.
“We do have a lot of patients on Medicaid,” one nurse in MedStar’s postpartum unit, Mel Rode, told NOTUS, adding: “We deliver 1 in 3 babies in the District and so, by closing a whole third of the postpartum beds, you are putting so many babies and so many delivering parents and mothers at risk.”
The hospital saw a 17% decline in newborn admissions this past year, but Rode said that both of its postpartum units have been over capacity multiple times this summer.
Council member Christina Henderson, who chairs the health committee, wasn’t surprised to hear Medicaid could be a factor in the closing. But Janeese Lewis George, D.C.’s likely next mayor, cast doubt on how culpable it could be for the decision.
“Most Medicaid cuts have not yet gone into effect,” Lewis George told NOTUS in a statement. “MedStar’s decision to close its postpartum delivery unit at Washington Hospital Center is a policy decision — one that must be reversed because of the critical role these units play in maternal health outcomes.”
Henderson said the hospital has no immediate plans to repurpose the unit and could reopen beds if patient numbers recuperate.
FROM THE DISTRICT
No new taxes, D.C. That’s the message a House committee sent Wednesday when it advanced a bill that would broadly restrict the city’s ability to increase taxes or fees. Martin writes that Republicans say the measure is intended to help the city become more economically competitive, while city officials counter that it would “straightjacket” them.
While D.C. officials loudly criticized Republican House members over the vote, another unexpected target emerged: DoorDash. The food-delivery platform supports the bill, largely over its opposition to a 20-cent delivery fee the D.C. Council recently approved. Some advocacy groups are calling on residents to boycott DoorDash, and social media has shown several people doing just that.
A high-profile lawsuit against D.C. over its ban on firearm magazines that can hold more than 10 bullets is on hold — for now. The plaintiff in the case and D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb have agreed to pause litigation pending a pair of cases the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear this year on the constitutionality of state laws banning AR-15 assault rifles, which D.C. similarly prohibits.
Agriculture Department workers say mandatory relocations from Washington to regional offices are mass layoffs in disguise, NOTUS’ Tyler Spence, Eric Katz and Natalie Alms report.
The Trump administration and D.C. Council finally have something they can agree on: razing the 11-acre Forrestal Building in Southwest D.C., City Cast DC reports.
TALK TO TOM
Tom Sietsema is here to answer your burning questions about the D.C. dining scene.
Sietsema, a James Beard Award winner, is NOTUS’ food correspondent. Previously, he was The Washington Post’s food critic for 25 years.
Got a question for Tom? Submit them here. Each Thursday, we’ll turn this section over to him to give you some answers.
Question: I’ve got family coming to D.C. Is there a restaurant on the Mall you prefer?
For proximity to the museums and value, I’m partial to America’s Table Cafe inside the lower level of the National Museum of American History, which fuels between 6,000 and 8,000 visitors a week around this time of year.
Leading the kitchen: executive chef Mollie Kaufmann, who previously served as the culinary operations manager for World Central Kitchen, and who offers food more personal than the crowd size suggests. (Quick, what other local cafeteria offers shrimp and grits, flavored as if you were in the South?) A recent lunch also featured a snappy bratwurst striped with brown mustard and topped with tangy sauerkraut; a salad bar that goes beyond the expected; and appealing side dishes to accompany the generous entrees. Fresh-tasting apple-fennel coleslaw, mustard-punched baked beans and pickled okra outperformed a plate of slightly dry smoked chicken thighs. Nodding to the season was a fine trifle sweetened with blueberries and peaches. I get hungry just typing that.
In the full Q&A: Where to find the best sushi in D.C., why American restaurants are always so dark, how to tip on expensive wine, and more.
SPORTS
The Commanders open training camp next week, meaning football season is suddenly around the corner. NOTUS’ Martenzie Johnson takes a look at five players with a lot on the line in Ashburn, including a young pass-catcher and a newly arrived Super Bowl champ.
The Nationals have started calling some pitches from the dugout, The Athletic reports, with Washington becoming the latest team to break a baseball norm in search of an analytical advantage.
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