Congresswoman Bustos Statement on H.R. 3922

Press Release

"It's appalling that just one day after introducing a bill that would raise the debt by trillions of dollars by giving windfall tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy, Washington Republicans are pitting health care for seniors against health care for children. More than a month ago, I called out Republicans for allowing this funding to expire and called for a bipartisan solution to protect the Children's Health Insurance Program and Community Health Centers, however that is not what they brought to the floor. By bringing a hyper partisan bill designed to help their electoral efforts rather than something that can actually become law, they are playing games with the health of millions of children and seniors. This is why I voted for the Democratic substitute bill to fund CHIP and Community Health Clinics without damaging Medicare.

"We absolutely must fund these important priorities and I look forward to voting on a final bill that will actually do that."

Below are several programs that would lose funding if H.R. 3922 if it became law:

HIV Testing, Laboratory, and Planning:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awards grants to expand HIV prevention efforts under the President's National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS). The purpose of the funding is to focus on HIV prevention in high risk populations and communities, and to fill in critical gaps in data, knowledge, and understanding of HIV. The funding should supplement existing programs in the hardest-hit communities, and grants will be awarded to state and local health departments to increase HIV testing opportunities for populations disproportionately affected by HIV.

Illinois has received about $927,371 for HIV Planning programs. The Illinois State Department of Public Health received $72,489 for HIV Laboratories and $145,567 for HIV Testing.

Tobacco Prevention:

There are a few programs that fund tobacco prevention. The main funding comes from the State Supplemental Funding for Healthy Communities. This program aims to reduce tobacco use through legislative, regulatory, and educational areas. The funding is also meant to be used to increase the number of tobacco users who quit by expanding the national network of toll-free numbers people can call to obtain smoking cessation treatments and services. The tobacco prevention fund received $116,426 from the Public Health Prevention Fund.

In addition to the tobacco prevention program, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) awards grants to states that create additional tobacco quitters, and Illinois has received $99,845 from this fund.

Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases:

The Public Health Prevention Fund has funded the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases (ELC) and the Emerging Infections Program (EIP) to increase epidemiology, laboratory, and health information systems capacity at health departments in Illinois. The funding is specifically meant to increase the amount of high-tech epidemiology equipment and hire and train epidemiologists who can work on multiple infectious diseases.

The Illinois State Department of Public Health received $586,815 in FY10 and $744,130 in FY11 from this fund.

Primary Care and Behavioral Health Services

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) at HHS awarded grants to support and promote better primary care and behavioral health services for individuals with mental illnesses or substance use disorders. The grants seek to improve health by improving the coordination of healthcare services delivered in publicly funded community mental health and other community-based behavioral health settings.

For the state of Illinois, funding was allocated to Trilogy, Inc at the rate of $421,263, to Heritage Behavioral Health Center, Inc at $496,863 and the Office of the Governor at $8,324,317 for FY 11.

Public Health Infrastructure

Grants are allocated to state, tribal, local and territorial health departments to improve their ability to provide public health services. These funds are provided to health departments with needed resources to make fundamental changes in their organizations and practices, so that they can improve the delivery of public health services including. They are also used for building and implementing capacity within health departments for evaluating the effectiveness of their organizations, practices, partnerships, programs and use of resources through performance management. As well, grants are used to expand and train public health staff and community leaders to conduct policy activities in key areas and to facilitate improvements in system efficiency and for maximizing the public health system to improve networking, coordination, and cross-jurisdictional cooperation for the delivery of public health services to address resource sharing and improve health indicators. Finally, funds are used to disseminate and implement and evaluate public health's best and most promising practices and to build a national network of performance improvement managers that share best practices for improving the public health system.

Funding was allocated to the Illinois State Department of Public Health at the rate of $400,000 for FY 10 and $500,000 for FY11.

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