Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), senior Democrat on the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee today called for more funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She also highlighted the agency’s proposal to better monitor the amount and impact of sports-related head injuries. The opening statement below is as delivered before the Committee. The exchange on sports-related head injuries can be viewed here, beginning at about 1:21:00.
“Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And welcome all. I would associate myself with the Chairman’s remarks on the importance of the CDC. It’s one of the three crown jewels of our health care system: the CDC, NIH and FDA. So I congratulate you for all that you do. Dr. Frieden, Dr. Bell, Dr. Schuchat, thank you for joining us.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the premier public health agency in the world. It is an essential part of our country’s security apparatus, it is vital to the well-being and safety of American families as any military agency is. Every day, its scientists, medical professionals, and other staff work to detect and track emerging threats, fight diseases before they reach the United States, and respond to public health emergencies here and abroad.
“Most of CDC’s funding supports core public health infrastructure around the country, including state and local health departments, public health laboratories, and nonprofit and community-based organizations. That is the network, the infrastructure that is so critical in the country. In short, CDC’s efforts have saved countless lives.
“Over the past year, we received a terrible reminder of the need for a robust public health system, in the ugly shape of the largest Ebola outbreak in history. No country is entirely immune from this disease. But the speed and effectiveness of each nation’s response has been directly proportionate to the quality of its public health system. Dr. Frieden, I would like to thank you and your colleagues for your tireless efforts to stop this horrible disease. Over the past nine months, over 1,000 CDC staff have deployed to West Africa to battle Ebola at its source. Here in the United States, officials learned from early mistakes in Dallas and moved quickly to strengthen our public health system, which overall has responded extremely well.
“At the same time, we know that CDC’s ability to protect the public - both at home and abroad - has been hampered in recent years by what I view as disastrous reductions in its budget. That is the inevitable result of the indiscriminate cuts and caps known as sequestration. Adjusting for inflation, CDC’s funding has been slashed by $1.35 billion since 2010 - that is almost one fifth of the agency’s entire budget. To take one example, the Public Health Emergency Preparedness Cooperative Agreement program that is the front-line state and local readiness has been cut by $132 million, or 17 percent. Recent outbreaks like Ebola, measles, and enterovirus show just how draconian and short-sighted this policy of sequestration is. We need to be working to prevent these emergencies when we can, to ensure that we are ready when they hit us.
“The budget request before us today would start to put us back on the right track. It requests an extra $264 million to combat antibiotic resistant bacteria, which kills at least 23,000 Americans every year. That is a staggering number. I read it two or three times because I could not believe the size of the number. It proposes an additional $54 million to build our nation’s response to prescription drug abuse, one of the leading causes of death among adults under 65. It proposes an additional $32 million for the Global Health Security Agenda, an agenda that increases in importance as people and goods travel more freely around the world. These are laudable initiatives.
“Overall, this request raises CDC’s budget by only $140 million. That figure would restore, again in my view, a paltry 10 percent of the cuts inflicted on CDC since 2010. Moreover, I am concerned by a number of the reductions and eliminations contained in this request. For example, it cuts $50 million from immunization programs, and reduces breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening by $42 million. It eliminates the Preventive Services Block Grant, which helps health departments in all 50 states respond early to public health risks, as well as the REACH program, which tackles chronic diseases in minority communities; and funding for occupational safety and health research centers.
“I understand that the budget requests have to walk a fine line. But I believe we can do better when it comes to our nation’s public health. As I have said many times, we have to start by eliminating the arbitrary and capricious caps set by sequestration. To do this, we must summon the courage to ask wealthier Americans to do more to support critical national priorities like public health. Every year we spend close to one and a half trillion dollars on tax breaks and loopholes. This is the spending. We are spending this money. Much of it goes to the wealthy and big corporations. This is spending we should be looking to reduce. When instead we cut funding for public health, we are jeopardizing our nation’s security no less than when we cut funding for the military.
“That is why this hearing is so important. I want to say a thank you to the Chairman for holding this hearing, and our witnesses for being here. I look forward to the discussion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman."
Source: U.S. Department of HCA
