LATEST FROM DC
ON THE HILL
IN THE ADMINISTRATION
AROUND THE WORLD
ASTMH continues to advocate before Congress and the Biden administration. Letters that ASTMH led or joined include urging:
- Labor-HHS-Education, Agriculture, and State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee leadership to include robust funding to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in FY2025.
- Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to protect COVID relief funds at the CDC from potential FY2024 rescissions and from cuts in subsequent budget FY2025 agreements.
- Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee leadership to make strong investments in Public Health Data Modernization at the CDC for FY2025.
- House Appropriations Committee to make strong investments in the CDC Advanced Molecular Detection (AMD) Program for FY2025.
- Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee leadership to provide robust funding to support vector-borne disease programs and initiatives, including at NIH and CDC.
- Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee leadership to provide strong funding for CDC programs for FY2025.
- State-Foreign Operations Subcommittee leadership to provide robust funding for the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) account.
ON THE HILL
At Long Last, FY24 Budget Signed into Law
Just hours before the shutdown deadline, President Joe Biden
signed the remaining six annual spendings bills to complete the FY2024 appropriations process. The final package of the bills included the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (LHHS) and State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPS) spending bills, which fund critical global health programs across the federal government, including at CDC, NIH and USAID. Overall, the spending bills resulted in a mixed-bag for global health. As expected in the current political environment, several programs were flat-funded (i.e., no change from last year), some programs saw sharp decreases, including the Global Health Security account at USAID, and some areas even saw unexpected increases, like NCEZID. Below are funding highlights across key programs and how these numbers compare to FY2023.
KEY: FY24 enacted amount ($ amount increase or decrease/% increase or decrease relative to FY23 omnibus)
- NIH: $48.58B (-$378m/-0.77%)
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID): $6.56B (no change)
- Fogarty International Center: $95.16m (no change)
- CDC: $9.22B (+$4.41m/+0.54%)
- Center for Global Health: $692.84m (no change)
- Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria: $29m (no change)
- National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID):
- USAID
- Malaria Program:
- Neglected Tropical Diseases Program:
- Global Health Security (includes Pandemic Fund): $700m (-$200m/-22.22%)
House GOP Elect New Appropriations Chair
House Republicans
recently elected House Rules Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) as the new chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Rep. Cole will succeed outgoing Chairwoman Kay Granger (R-TX), who announced last month that she would be handing off the House Appropriations gavel early before retiring next year. Cole ran unopposed and easily won the backing of the Republican Steering Committee, receiving a unanimous recommendation to lead the powerful spending committee. Many Democrats have also highlighted Cole’s ability to work across the aisle on annual spending bills. Cole previously served as the Chairman of the health-related appropriations subcommittee during the 114th and 115th Congress, as well as the Ranking Member in 116th and 117th Congress. “I will be utilizing my expertise and years of service on this Committee to responsibly guide us forward and fight for conservative, Republican priorities. I look forward to hitting the ground running tomorrow and am committed to engaging with the entire Conference to deliver the necessary appropriations bills in a timely manner. Everything I do will be in pursuit of fulfilling our fiscal commitments no matter the obstacles we face,” said Rep. Cole in a
statement regarding his election.
USAID Administrator Testifies on Capitol Hill
On April 10, USAID Administrator Samantha Power
testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee regarding the FY2025 budget request for USAID. Chairman Ben Cardin (D-MD) underscored how operating under a constrained budget has made it challenging for USAID to respond to the world’s challenges. In respect to global health, Administrator Power highlighted the agency’s work in early detection and diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) in Nigeria. She also described how the agency prioritizes projects that are both cost-effective and advance national security interests, citing pandemic preparedness and lab surveillance activities as example. Sen Rand Paul (R-KY) also pressed Administrator Power on whether USAID had been involved with gain-of-function research.
Senate Committee Launches Bipartisan COVID Inquiry
While most COVID-related investigations have been GOP-led in the 118th Congress, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chair Gary Peters (D-MI) and Committee Chair Rand Paul (R-KY) recently
announced a new bipartisan inquiry into the national security threats posed by high-risk biological research and technology in the U.S. and abroad. According to the announcement, the committee intends to hold hearings and exercise oversight on areas including high-risk life science research, biodefense, synthetic biology, biosafety and biosecurity lapses, early warning capabilities for emerging outbreaks or possible attacks, and potential origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. “This bipartisan oversight effort will allow us to take a comprehensive look at whether the federal government is taking the necessary steps to keep Americans safe from current and future biological threats,” said Chair Peters.
Top Scientific Journal Chiefs Head to Capitol Hill
The editors-in-chief of leading scientific journals
Science,
Nature and
The Lancet are expected to testify before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) on April 16. In a
letter to each journal, Wenstrup alleged that the federal government may have inappropriately influenced COVID-19-related research and publications at these journals. Specifically, Wenstrup referenced a paper that “wrongly downplayed and vilified” the controversial lab-leak theory.
PEPFAR Reauthorized for Another Year
In the final FY2024 spending bill, Congress included a one-year reauthorization of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), falling short of a clean five-year extension that PEPFAR advocates have been hoping for and departing from a longtime bipartisan tradition. Under the agreement, PEPFAR has been reauthorized until March 25 and did not include any controversial policy provisions (or riders), which were a source of serious contention that ultimately stalled reauthorization. This is the first time the program will not be renewed for a five-year period since its creation in 2003. The single-year extension means that we can expect another fight over PEPFAR’s future in 2025.
IN THE ADMINISTRATION
NIH Taps New Fogarty Director
NIH Director Dr. Monica M. Bertagnolli
selected Dr. Kathleen M. Neuzil as the 13
th director of the Fogarty International Center (FIC) and NIH Associate Director for International Research. Dr. Neuzil will be the first woman to serve as the permanent FIC Director. She is currently an Endowed Professor in Vaccinology, Director of the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health, and Chief of the Division of Geographic Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore. She will succeed Dr. Peter Kilmarx, who has been serving as the Acting Director of FIC since January 2023, and is expected to join in early May. “Combined with her many years as a vaccine policy advisor to the CDC and the WHO, and her experience establishing new partnerships and directing diverse organization teams, she is very well suited to lead FIC,” said NIH Director Monica M. Bertagnolli.
AROUND THE WORLD
New Africa CDC Head Appointed in Wake of Departure
Dr. Raji Tajudeen has been appointed as acting deputy director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). Dr. Tajudeen will temporarily replace former deputy director-general Dr. Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, who resigned last month due to new country quota guidance from the African Union on who can hold the position.