LATEST FROM DC
ON THE HILL
IN THE ADMINISTRATION
AROUND THE WORLD
LATEST FROM DC
ASTMH continues to advocate before Congress and the Biden administration.
Letters that ASTMH led or joined include:
Letter urging House and Senate Labor-Health and Human Services-Education appropriations subcommittee leaders to include at least $11.581 billion for CDC’s programs in the fiscal year (FY) 2025 Labor-HHS appropriations bill and reject any cuts or damaging policy riders.
ON THE HILL
Congress Passes Yet Another Stopgap Spending Patch, FY24 Conversations Continue
Earlier this month, Congress passed its fourth stopgap spending bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), to avert a partial government shutdown. The measure, which was signed by President Biden without delay, extended funding for half of the government through March 8 and the remaining half through March 22. This agreement cleared the way for six of the 12 annual appropriations bills to pass last week, including the Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy-Water, Interior-Environment, Military Construction-VA and Transportation-HUD measures. Lawmakers must finalize and pass the remaining six annual spending bills – including the bills that fund NIH, CDC and USAID before the March 22 deadline. This tranche of bills also includes funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which could complicate a final agreement due to contentious debates over border security and immigration.
Health Riders on Latest Stopgap Spending Package Leave PAHPA On Sidelines
The six-bill “minibus” passed last week included a narrow set of health measures, mainly focused on addressing imminent deadlines for various domestic health-related programs, such as funding for community health centers and partially reversing Medicare physician payment cuts. There was some hope by advocates that reauthorization for the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA) would be included in the health package, but the critical pandemic preparedness legislation was ultimately left out. For months, disagreements over whether – and to what extent – drug shortages should be addressed in PAHPA have impeded the bill’s reauthorization. The overall PAHPA framework expired on September 30, 2023, though some programs were extended through prior continuing resolutions. If the reauthorization is not included in the final set of spending bills set to expire March 22, which includes the Labor HHS appropriations legislation that underpins PAHPA, then it remains unclear what the next moving legislative vehicle will be to reauthorize the bill – and when.
House Holds Hearing on White House Role in Pandemic Preparedness
The House Committee on Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic recently
held a hearing, Examining the White House’s Role in Pandemic Preparedness and Response. Maj. Gen. Paul Friedrichs, Director of the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy (OPPR), testified at the hearing. The hearing highlighted the work of OPPR and addressed a number of concerns, including ways the office is working to rebuild trust with the American people and enhancing supply chains. Director Friedrichs shared that OPPR is working on a report reflecting on lessons learned from the pandemic and identifying recommendations to respond to future threats. The report is expected to be completed and released to the select subcommittee later in the year.
IN THE ADMINISTRATION
President Biden Releases FY 2025 Budget
On March 11, President Biden
submitted his budget request to Congress for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25). As a reminder, the President’s Budget Request (PBR) is simply a request intended to guide Congress in its budgetary decision-making process – it is not binding, as Congress has exclusive power of the purse. However, the president’s budget plays a critical role in shaping global health funding priorities for the upcoming fiscal year. The budget request includes overall funding amounts across federal departments and agencies. Since a final FY24 bill has not yet been enacted, below are some highlights of how the PBR compares to FY23 omnibus spending bill across key federal global health programs. The FY23 enacted levels closely mirror the amounts proposed in the FY24 SFOPS and LHHS bills agreed to over the summer.
KEY: PBR Request ($ amount increase or decrease/% increase or decrease relative to FY23 omnibus)
- NIH: $50.1B (+$1.14m/+2.3%)
- NNIAID: $6.59B (+$18.72m/+0.3%)
- Fogarty International Center: $95m (no change)
- CDC: $9.69B (+$461.4m/+5%)
- Center for Global Health: $692.8m (no change)
- Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria: $29m (no change)
- National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID):
- USAID: $3.99B (-$174.95m/-4.2%)
- Malaria Program:
- NTD Program:
- Global Health Security (includes Pandemic Fund): $900m (no change)
President Biden Issues New Executive Order on Health Data Sharing with Foreign Countries
President Biden recently
signed an Executive Order, Preventing Access to Americans' Bulk Sensitive Data and United States Government-Related Data by Countries of Concern. Among its provisions, the President’s EO requires the Departments of Health and Human Services, Defense, and Veterans Affairs to undertake measures to ensure that personal health data, along with other sensitive data, is not shared with foreign countries through federal grants, contracts and awards. The administration notably highlighted how the EO “marks the most significant executive action any President has ever taken to protect Americans’ data security.”
NIAID Seeks Comment on Strategic Plan
NIAID issued a
Request for Information (RFI) to help guide its strategic plan over the next five years. Comments are due by May 27.
AROUND THE WORLD
Acting Deputy Africa CDC Director Stepping Down
Acting Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) Deputy Director-General Dr. Ahmed Ogwell Ouma announced that he will leave the agency at the end of the month. The decision comes in the wake of new
guidance from the African Union regarding the position, which strongly encouraged candidates to apply from less-represented countries, of which Kenya was not included. Dr. Ouma has held the position since 2019 and helped steer the agency through the COVID-19 pandemic.
WHO NTD Program Launches New Initiatives
The WHO’s Global NTD Programme
recently launched a Global Oversight Committee. The Global Oversight Committee will aim to address longstanding challenges in the donation and supply chain management of medicines for treatment of NTDs, including coordinating efforts and improving the efficiency of drug distribution to those in need.
The committee has been launched at the same time as a complementary project—the Supply Chain Technical Support Mechanism—a five-year project implemented by JSI (John Snow, Inc.) that aims to fortify NTD supply chains in Africa, particularly in eight priority countries.