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A girls’ night at the Georgetown home of a prominent journalist, a lobbying push for soft-focus features in glossy magazines, a professional makeup artist and invitations to awards dinners and prestige panels. The smorgasbord that expensive consultants laid out for Seema Verma, President Trump’s Medicare chief and a new arrival in town, proved to be enticing. The tab — $6 million in less than two years — fell to the federal taxpayer. (Williamson, 9/10)

Congressional Democrats are accusing a top health official in President Donald Trump’s administration of “extensive abuse” of millions of taxpayers’ dollars, in part by retaining a raft of Republican-tied media consultants in an attempt to boost her “personal brand.” Leaders from four congressional committees, who on Thursday revealed the results of a 17-month investigation into Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma’s use of public funds, are now calling on her to “personally reimburse the taxpayers for these inappropriate expenditures.” (Breuninger and Feuer, 9/10)

USA Today is defending longtime Washington bureau chief Susan Page, after a congressional investigation revealed that she hosted a “Girls’ Night Out” event at her home in honor of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma in November 2018. Page, a longtime member of the D.C. press corps, was recently picked by the Commission on Presidential Debates to host the vice-presidential debate on Oct. 7. (Barr, 9/10)

Thursday’s congressional report on the expenses Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma incurred on private communications consultants has been a subject of breathless Beltway coverage, with Politico reporting that Verma “spent more than $3.5 million on a range of GOP-connected consultants, who polished her public profile, wrote her speeches and Twitter posts, brokered meetings with high-profile individuals — and even billed taxpayers for connecting Verma with fellow Republicans in Congress.” One particularly notable expense: A consultant named Pam Stevens was paid $2,933 for organizing a party at a journalist’s house. That journalist, USA Today Washington bureau chief Susan Page, also happens to be the moderator for the upcoming vice presidential debate featuring Verma’s onetime boss, Mike Pence. That led to calls for Page to step down from the debate. (Beaujon, 9/10)