April 2010

NACCHO Takes Steps to Address LHD Job Losses

Over the past two years, budget cuts and job losses in local health departments have continued to escalate. In 2008–2009, local health departments lost 23,000 jobs, or 15 percent of the local public health workforce. (More information about budget cuts and job losses in LHDs is available here.)

One of NACCHO’s top legislative priorities this year is to persuade Congress to provide support for local health department jobs in the context of federal legislation to address unemployment and job creation. NACCHO has endorsed the Local Jobs for America Act (H.R. 4812), authored by Representative George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. This bill would authorize $75 billion to go directly to local and state governments—$52.5 billion would go to communities with at least 50,000 residents and $22.5 billion would go to governors to distribute to states with fewer than 50,000 residents.

It is estimated that the Local Jobs for America Act will create one million public and private jobs. By directly allocating funds to municipalities, the Local Jobs for America Act would help address current local government budgetary shortfalls and, in turn, may enable local governments to provide local health departments with the resources necessary to reinstate laid-off personnel, return furloughed employees to full-time work, and restore core public health services.

NACCHO is committed to seeking relief for local health departments who have suffered budget cuts, and NACCHO staff will keep you informed about future opportunities to communicate with your Members of Congress and Senators.

NACCHO Educates Members on Health Reform Implementation

NACCHO has begun to monitor the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law on March 23. On April 13, NACCHO held a health reform webinar open to all local health departments. If you missed this webinar, the slides, an audio recording, and a question and answer document produced after the webinar are available at NACCHO's Health Reform webpage.  

In Fiscal Year 2010, $500 million is available through the Prevention and Public Health Fund for programs authorized by the Public Health Service Act for prevention, wellness, and public health activities. At the current time, NACCHO is involved in discussions with leaders in the Obama Administration and Capitol Hill about how the fund will be allocated, but the timetable for making these decisions is not known.

NACCHO Provides Testimony on FY11 Appropriations

In April, NACCHO submitted testimony to the Senate and House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittees.

NACCHO’s appropriations requests for FY11 are listed below:

• Public Health Emergency Preparedness ($1.152 billion including pandemic influenza preparedness)

The Public Health Emergency Preparedness cooperative agreements help to strengthen community preparedness and responsiveness to emergencies, improve cost-effectiveness, and upgrade capabilities for such tasks as distributing medical countermeasures, addressing the needs of at-risk individuals, conducting drills, and developing partnerships between local health departments, volunteers, schools, businesses, and other community organizations so that they can collaborate when an emergency response must take place.

• Advanced Practice Centers: $5.5 million

The APC program, a network of eight health departments across the country, supports local health departments in their efforts to develop innovative, field-tested tools and models to help other local health departments meet emergency preparedness goals.

• Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant: $131 million

The Preventive Health and Health Services block grant program enables cities, counties and states to address health needs not funded by other means and provides flexible funding to address unexpected health threats

• Healthy Communities: NACCHO request $30 million

The Healthy Communities program is dedicated to supporting local communities in implementing evidence-based interventions and policy, systems, and environmental changes necessary to help communities prevent chronic diseases and their risk factors.

• Health Prevention Corps: NACCHO request $10 million

According to the President’s budget, the Health Prevention Corps program will “recruit new talent into service for state and local health departments and provide the building blocks for creating a stronger, interdisciplinary workforce.” These funds are meant to create a foundation for the program by establishing a management plan for staffing and program administration, convening stakeholders to establish the program framework, and developing a curriculum for Corps members.

NACCHO also advocates for investment in public health programs authorized by the health reform law to the extent possible in FY11. NACCHO’s appropriations testimony and more information about FY11 appropriations can be found at NACCHO's FY11 Budget and Appropriations webpage.