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One of Washington’s most influential health policymakers, Sen. Lamar Alexander, will not seek reelection in 2020, he announced Monday. The Tennessee Republican has chaired the powerful Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee since 2015, where he presided over a number of high-profile health care bills, including the 21st Century Cures Act, and the Republican party’s eventually abandoned effort to repeal Obamacare. (Florko, 12/17)

“I will not be a candidate for re-election to the United States Senate in 2020. The people of Tennessee have been very generous, electing me to serve more combined years as Governor and Senator than anyone else from our state. I am deeply grateful, but now it is time for someone else to have that privilege,” Alexander said in a statement. Alexander had said he would decide by the end of the year whether he’d seek re-election. As recently as last week, it seemed his team was gearing up for him to seek a fourth term, when his pollster released a poll showing the senator with a 65 percent favorability rating among likely Republican primary voters. (Lesniewski, 12/17)

Alexander is widely respected by Democrats and Republicans, the rare senator who is close to both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). With his retirement, the Senate will lose a key negotiating conduit during times of crisis. (Everett, 12/17)

It has not been all wins for Mr. Alexander. After Republicans were unsuccessful in repealing the Affordable Care Act, he led an effort to try to reach a bipartisan agreement to shore it up while lawmakers considered broader changes. But the attempt to repair former President Barack Obama’s signature health care legislation — in concert with Senators Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, and Susan Collins, Republican of Maine — collapsed. That blockade was emblematic of the fate of broader bipartisan measures that tread on politically sensitive turf. (Hulse and Hirschfeld Davis, 12/17)

Like Sen. Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican last year declined to run for a third term, Alexander’s announcement will send shockwaves throughout Tennessee’s political landscape. (Ebert, 12/17)

House Democrats are planning to vote next year on bills that address gun violence as a public health concern, marking the party's first steps back into a divisive debate after being in the minority for eight years. Energized by their midterm victories and a focus on gunshot victims highlighted by a growing chorus of medical professionals, Democrats say they will push for legislation to fund research on gun injuries and deaths. (Weixel, 12/14)