National Association of County and City Health Officials Believes The The President’s Budget Would Endanger the Public’s Health

Washington, DC, May 23, 2017 -- The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) representing nearly 3,000 local health departments, is troubled by proposed cuts to key programs that maintain the nation’s health and security.  Specifically, cuts to vital Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) programs undermine the work of the nation’s local health departments which are charged with promoting health and improving the quality and length of all lives. 

The CDC provides funds to state and local health departments to carry out a wide array of programs across the country.  

The President’s FY2018 budget proposal, released today, includes deep cuts to immunization, public health preparedness, infectious and chronic disease programs at CDC, as well as programs that support disease monitoring and outbreak response. 

“The President’s budget cuts if enacted would negatively impact the health and safety of communities across the country,” said NACCHO’s interim executive director and chief of government affairs Laura Hanen, MPP.  “This is a document that in theory embodies the values and priorities of the nation. Unfortunately, the emphasis is not on preventing disease and ensuring long and healthy lives of Americans, particularly those most vulnerable.” 

The most troublesome of these funding cuts will further reduce the resilience of our communities:  

• A $109 million cut (17%) to the CDC Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) program and a $28 million cut (11%) to the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response’s Hospital Preparedness (HPP) program.  
• A $90 million cut to the Immunization Program that provides vaccine services to low-income and uninsured children, adolescents and adults. This comes at a time when the nation is experiencing costly outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases such as mumps and measles. 
• Creation of a block grant program at CDC that consolidates and deeply cuts ($222 million) chronic disease prevention programs at a time when chronic diseases are driving the growth in health care costs, death, and disability.  
• Deep cuts of $186 million to infectious disease prevention programs at CDC. 
• Elimination of the public health workforce development program at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which includes public health training centers and preventive medicine residency training.  

NACCHO is committed to working with Congress and the Administration to ensure that governmental public health programs continue to receive sufficient support to build on the historic gains in life expectancy in America that in large part are the result of public health investments and interventions.    

About NACCHO 

The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) represents the nation's nearly 3,000 local governmental health departments. These city, county,  metropolitan, district, and tribal departments work every day to protect and promote health and well-being for all people in their communities. For more information about NACCHO, please visit www.naccho.org.  

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1c1aaa0c-de64-419b-8336-6e65b4824560

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b036b12d-6501-4243-8577-1360aea3d3a8

Theresa Spinner
National Association of County and City Health Officials
202-783-5551
[email protected]