Washington, DC, March 4, 2020 — The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), representing nearly 3,000 local health departments, released the following statement by its Chief Executive Officer Lori Tremmel Freeman regarding the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act (HR 6074).
“Local health departments are working around the clock to respond to this outbreak that has the potential to spread throughout our communities, disrupting families, workplaces, and the U.S. economy. This work has been critical to not only slow the spread of this disease, but to ensure that those affected are identified and linked to care and that the general public has the information they need to protect themselves and their families.
“But they have been doing so on limited budgets, often without clear understanding of how they would pay for this large public health mobilization. This Emergency Supplemental package is a critical step to ensure that local health departments can be made whole for their work to date and that they have access to the resources they need for the response ahead.
“Last week, governmental public health officials from across the country were here advocating for federal support for their work overall and for this response. This package—with specific funding dedicated to local and state health department activities and a quick timeline to release funds to the field—reflects their key messages: we need a robust supplemental appropriations and we need it now.
“On behalf of health departments across the country, NACCHO will continue to work closely with Congress and the administration to speed this support to the front lines of the response and ensure that the local-state-federal governmental public health system is working together to address the coronavirus.”
The package includes $950 million specifically for future state and local public health response efforts to “carry out surveillance, epidemiology, laboratory capacity, infection control, mitigation, communications, and other preparedness and response activities” and will reimburse states, localities, and tribes for costs incurred since January 20 related to the outbreak. See more on NACCHO’s advocacy for coronavirus resources here and here.
