Senate Acts on HHS Funding Bill
Prior to leaving town for an August recess, the Senate Appropriations Committee completed action on the Senate version of the funding bill for the Department of Health and Human Services. The bill awaits Senate floor action in the fall. The House of Representatives passed its version of the measure in June 2005.
The Senate bill, which added more than $3 billion to the House's level of funding for health, education and labor programs, restored some cuts made by the House, adding more money than the House had proposed for the National Institutes of Health and health professions education. The Senate also restored CDC's budget for buildings and facilities and was more generous in its allocation to education programs.
However, the Senate agreed to the Administration's proposal to cut funding for state and local bioterrorism preparedness by 14%, or about $130 million. This contrasts to the action of the House, which "split the difference" and cut this funding by 8%. The Senate also agreed to the same partial restoration of funds as the House for the Preventive Health and Health Services block grant. The Administration had proposed to eliminate the block grant. Both House and Senate have now recommended funding of $100 million, a cut of $31 million from the FY 2005 level, and of about $18 million from the amount that was actually made available to grantees for FY 2005.
The Senate Appropriations Committee did, however, make some additional stipulations concerning public health funding that NACCHO advocated. The Committee's report includes the following language concerning pandemic influenza, recognizing concerns that local health departments have articulated:
"The Committee is aware that the Department is developing a pandemic influenza response plan. The Committee recognizes that local health departments, working with their States, play essential roles in responding to influenza outbreaks, including monitoring of local vaccine availability, distribution and redistribution of vaccines and antiviral medications to high priority populations, implementation of necessary epidemic containment measures, and communication to the public. Therefore, Committee encourages the Department to assure that all aspects of Federal pandemic influenza planning are consistent with operational realities at the local level and will have the intended public health results when implemented locally. The Committee further urges the Department to assure that Federal pandemic flu planning avoid duplication and inconsistency with other Federal directives concerning public health preparedness."
The Committee also reaffirmed its support for the NACCHO-supported provision in CDC's guidance for state/local bioterrorism funding requiring concurrence by local agencies with a state's spending plan:
"The Committee continues to recognize that bioterrorism events will occur at the local level and will require local capacity, preparedness and initial response. It is the Committee's intent that significant funding for State and local public health infrastructure be used to improve local public health capacity and meet the needs
determined by local health departments. The Committee notes that HHS' cooperative agreement guidance now includes explicit requirements for local concurrence with State spending plans for public health emergency preparedness and urges CDC to monitor and enforce these requirements."
The Senate leadership has indicated its intention to act on all funding bills prior to the October 1, 2005 start of the new fiscal year. At this writing, it is not possible to predict the possible impact of a Supreme Court nomination to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, but Senate debate on a nomination could well supersede all other business. If and when the Senate passes the HHS funding bill, it would then be considered by a joint House-Senate conference committee, which would negotiate a final version to send to the President for signature. Last year, the conference committee acted without a Senate floor vote on the HHS funding measure, a scenario that might be repeated if the full Senate gets bogged down with other matters.
NACCHO and its public health partners will be working hard to urge the conference committee to fully restore cuts in public health funding. Please watch for action alerts and respond to them promptly – we can't do it without your help!
Complete information on House and Senate actions on public health funding can be found by clicking on the link to "Appropriations Legislation" on the web site
http://thomas.loc.gov.
