On June 9, the House Appropriations Committee approved its Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) bill along party lines.  

The House FY27 bill would provide $110.8 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which is approximately $4 billion below FY26 enacted levels. Notably, the bill does not align with the proposed restructure of HHS included in the President’s Budget Request (PBR). However, the House bill would consolidate STI, Virtual Hepatitis, Infectious Disease and Opioids into one block grant funded at $208.9 million, leaving Tuberculosis as a standalone line item. This is different than the FY27 PBR, which proposes combining STI, Viral Hepatitis, and Tuberculosis into a consolidated block grant at $300 million. 

While the House Appropriations Committee vote is an important step toward finalizing FY27 funding, there is still a long way to go. The Senate has not yet released its version of an FY27 Labor-HHS bill and then time will be needed to negotiate the differences in the two bills before a final law can be enacted. NACCHO’s analysis of the House bill and additional resources are below. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 

The bill would provide a total of $8.1 billion in mandatory and discretionary funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is about $1.1 billion below FY26 enacted levels, but approximately $1.8 billion above the President’s Budget request. 

Key funding lines at CDC important to the work of local health departments include:   

The bill proposes eliminating or reducing certain programs at CDC in FY27: 

Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) 

The House bill includes $3.648 billion for ASPR, a decrease of approximately $44 million from FY26 enacted levels.  

Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) 

The House bill includes $8 billion in discretionary funding for HRSA, a decrease of approximately $900 million from FY26 levels. Within HRSA, the bill would provide slightly decreased funding for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program at $2.346 billion. Unfortunately, no funds were included for the Public Health Workforce Loan Repayment Program, a key NACCHO priority. Additional notable proposed eliminations in FY27 at HRSA include: 

In addition to the bill text, the Committee released the accompanying committee report providing additional context and direction for their funding decisions. The language relevant to the work of local health departments is below. 

Committee Report Language - CDC 

Local Health Departments.—Federal funding intended for both State and local health departments does not consistently reach local health departments beyond those directly funded by CDC. The Committee encourages CDC to require States to fund local health departments when programmatically appropriate. The Committee urges CDC to publicly track and report to the Committee how funds provided to State health departments are passed through to local health departments, including the amount and date funds are made available, per grant award, by local jurisdiction. 

CDC Core Capacities.—The Committee prioritizes strengthening CDC data systems, building laboratory capacity, modernizing communications, and developing a highly skilled public health workforce to ensure robust Federal, State, and local capabilities. With clear accountability and a focus on domestic resilience, CDC funding should reinforce critical health capabilities, accelerate disease threat detection and medical countermeasure development, and sustain a resilient public health system that protects vulnerable populations and secures the nation against emerging threats and public health challenges.  

The Committee prioritizes funding for CDC Core Capacities across 14 accounts, including Quarantine; Emerging Infectious Diseases; Advanced Molecular Detection; Epi and Lab Capacity; Health Statistics; Public Health Data Modernization; Public Health Workforce; Advancing Laboratory Science; Surveillance, Epi, and Informatics; Global Health Protection; Public Health Emergency Preparedness Cooperative Agreements; Buildings and Facilities; and the Infectious Diseases Rapid Response Reserve Fund; Public Health Infrastructure. As part of the fiscal year 2028 congressional justification, CDC is directed to provide a breakout table detailing the funding requested for these core capacity program lines. 

Public Awareness of CDC Activities.—The Committee recognizes that many public health interventions are preventive in nature and often occur without public notice. These prevention activities are essential to protecting Americans from threats both at home and abroad. Therefore, the Committee urges CDC to expand public-facing communications that highlight successful domestic and global prevention efforts, with the goal of improving public understanding of how CDC programs save lives, protect U.S. health security interests, and preserve economic stability. 

Data Modernization.—The Committee recognizes CDC’s continued progress towards the implementation of CDC’s data modernization efforts to bolster the nation’s health security infrastructure and readiness response, including through the One CDC Data Platform (1CDP). The Committee provides increased funding to strengthen the core of public health data; accelerate access to analytic and automated solutions to support health investigations; visualize and share insights to inform public health action; and advance more open and interoperable public health data. Increased funding is provided to bolster and expand data surveillance systems across jurisdictional public health authorities, the health care sector, and other key Federal partners. 

The Committee also recognizes CDC’s efforts to engage with States, Tribes, localities, and territories through data use agreements for core data sources as well as key recommendations from the Advisory Committee to the Director Data and Surveillance Workgroup. The Committee urges CDC to prioritize support for jurisdictions with existing data modernization barriers, including those facing significant workforce constraints, interoperability challenges, and aging data infrastructure. The Committee directs CDC to provide a briefing within 90 days of enactment of this Act on the latest developments related to the implementation of enterprise- level public health data systems. 

Emergency Preparedness and Response.—The Committee supports the CDC’s efforts to provide guidance, technical assistance, and resources, including emergency preparedness epidemiologist and experts, to communities as they prepare for, withstand, and recover from emergencies. Increasingly complex and multi-state outbreaks, such as Measles, alongside major events and mass gatherings across the country, including the 2026 World Cup, demonstrate the need for a nationwide public health preparedness infrastructure which provides local health departments the capability to rapidly detect, monitor, and respond to health threats. 

Committee Report Language – ASPR 

Medical Reserve Corps.— The Committee provides $6,240,000 for the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), which is the same as the fiscal year 2026 enacted level. MRC volunteers partner with public health and emergency response organizations to prepare communities before a crisis, strengthening coordination and readiness. The Committee recognizes the contributions of MRC volunteers for the almost 300,000 hours of service in 2025. The Committee encourages ASPR to continue supporting the operation and integration of the national MRC network. 

Committee Report Language - SAMHSA 

Harm Reduction.—The Committee commends the Trump Administration’s recent guidance to shift away from harm reduction activities that facilitate illicit drug use and run counter to Federal law, including the use of taxpayer dollars to purchase drug testing kits. The Committee continues to prioritize funding for evidence- based addiction treatment and recovery, including the use of FDA- approved medications for opioid use disorder. While the Committee provides no funding for harm reduction activities, the Committee continues to support the availability and provision of naloxone and other opioid overdose reversal medications to reduce overdose deaths. 

*Supported through the Prevention and Public Health Fund, which is eliminated. Under the proposal, some of these proposed funding levels would now be covered under traditional budget authority.   

** The FY 2027 PBR proposes to realign the following lines into the new proposed line, Consolidated Hepatitis, STD and Tuberculosis Prevention Grant: Consolidated Viral Hepatitis, STD and Tuberculosis Prevention Grant, Viral Hepatitis, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), Domestic TB, and Infectious Diseases and the Opioid Epidemic.