Flu Appropriation Update

Great news! The Senate Appropriations Committee has recommended approving $900 million in emergency flu funding. Even more importantly, the Committee has recognized the importance of hiring PHL staff. Taken from the report itself:

“The Committee notes that the economic downturn has forced States and local governments to lay off public health laboratories and other public health professionals.”

The House Appropriations Committee has already taken similar action by adding $350 million for State and local government capacity building in its version of the emergency flu funding bill. Their report also references the impact of the lay offs.

You can see the full text of the Senate report here and the full text of the House report here.

2010 Proposed Federal Budget

President Obama recently unveiled his proposed 2010 federal budget. Unfortunately, it was disappointing to see that the budget generally maintained, but did not increase, the levels of funding for most governmental public health priority programs. The budget for CDC was approximately $6.6 billion, a 0.4% increase from 2009’s budget of approximately $6.3 billion.

A few key laboratory areas did, however, receive greater funding:

▪ FDA funding for food safety was increased. However, there was no sizable increase for CDC activities, most notably PulseNet. To ensure America’s food supply is protected, it’s important that all elements of the food safety infrastructure are adequately funded.
▪ There was a $51 million increase in HIV/AIDS funding, most of which was primarily for point-of-care programs and not for laboratory testing.
▪ It was the third year running that newborne screening activities received dedicated funding.

For more information about the budget, please browse the online document.