APTR Statements and Letters Regarding Policy Issues
APTR joined 98 organizations to recommend providing at least $9.8 billion for discretionary Health Resources and Services Administration programs in the FY 2023 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill. Strong funding for HRSA is critical to supporting all of HRSA’s activities and programs, which are essential to protect the health of our communities. Due to years of underfunding, many HRSA programs have not received the funding that is needed to address the many health challenges we face as a nation, limiting their ability to provide communities with the support, care and workforce that they depend on. Additional funding will allow HRSA to fill preventive and primary health care gaps, support urgent and long-term public health workforce needs and build upon the achievements of HRSA’s more than 90 programs and more than 3,000 grantees. Read the Letter
APTR, and its Friends of HRSA organizations dedicated to improving the health of all women, children, and families, strongly urge you to support at least $1 billion for the Title V Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Services Block Grant in the FY2023 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education & Related Agencies Appropriations bill. The Title V MCH Block Grant is a cost-effective, accountable, and flexible funding source used to address the most critical, pressing, and unique needs of maternal and child health populations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and other jurisdictions. We thank Congress for funding the Title V MCH Block Grant at $747.7 million in FY2022 and urge them to provide an increase to at least $1 billion in FY2023, including a robust increase for the state formula fund. Read the Letter 
The benefits of investing in health services research through AHRQ transcend the pandemic and provide benefits in saved lives, better value care, and improved patient outcomes across the health system. For example, the implementation of just one AHRQ-funded study on reducing hospital acquired conditions prevented an estimated 20,500 hospital deaths and saved $7.7 billion in health care costs from 2014 to 2017. Additional investments are needed to maximize the translation of research findings across the public health and health care continuum to improved patient care and keep pace with the rapidly evolving and changing health care landscape.
For these reasons, APTR and the 134 undersigned members of the Friends of AHRQ respectfully request no less than $500 million in funding for the Agency for Healthcare and Research and Quality (AHRQ). This request reflects an inflation adjustment from FY10 and the demonstrated need to expand and accelerate HSR investments to inform decision-making on the health care system as it recovers from the pandemic.
View Senate Appropriations Request
View House of Representatives Appropriations Request
APTR joined 140 state and national organizations to urge Congress to include at least the House-passed level of $10.5 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s programs in the final FY 2022 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies appropriations bill. Strong funding for CDC is critical to supporting all of CDC’s activities and programs, which are essential to protect the health of our communities. Due to years of underfunding, many CDC programs have not received the funding that is needed to address the many health challenges we face as a nation, resulting in many of CDC’s most effective prevention programs not reaching all states. APTR also believes that it is critical for Congress to quickly finalize the FY 2022 appropriations process to avoid lengthy continuing resolutions that bring uncertainty and make it more difficult for the agency and its grantees to protect the public’s health. In addition to ensuring a strong public health infrastructure and protecting our communities from public health threats and emergencies, CDC programs are crucial to reducing health care costs and improving health.
Access Sign-on Letter
APTR joined 212 organizations in a letter to Congress urging meaningful action to immediately address the deep inequities that birthing people of color face, specifically Black and Indigenous women and to enact legislation to improve maternal health that centers racial equity. Specifically: Extend Medicaid coverage to one year. Build out Maternal Health Services, Centering Racial Equity. Invest in Community-Based Partners
Read the Letter »
APTR joined other leading health care, medical, and public health organizations to urge Congress to provide funding to support hospital-based violence intervention programs
(HVIPs) and other community violence interventions. These multidisciplinary programs aim to
help break the cycle of violence, including the nation’s gun violence epidemic, by connecting
patients at risk of experiencing or perpetrating violent injury with key hospital, community-
based, and case management services to prevent repeat injury and retaliatory violence.
Violence, including injury and deaths from firearms, is a major public health problem in the
United States. In collaboration with community partners, HVIPs initiate
trauma-informed interventions within the hospital setting as patients recover and follow up with
long-term services such as counseling, job training, mentoring, home visits, and other assistance.
By addressing some of the social determinants of health and specific risk factors associated with
violent injury, HVIPs have been successful in reducing future violence and lowering health care
costs.
There is
currently no dedicated federal funding stream to support such effective programming. President
Biden’s fiscal year (FY) 2022 budget requests $100 million for the CDC to implement
intervention programs to address the causes of violence and reduce health inequities. The request
is in addition to a proposal in the American Jobs Plan to invest $5 billion over eight years to
support community violence intervention programs, including those in hospital settings. Sign-on Letter
A total of 62 national organizations support the highest possible funding for federal programs to improve maternal health in Fiscal Year 2022. The letter is co-led by Reps. DeGette (D-CO), Gallagher (R-WI), Kelly (D-IL), Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Adams (D-NC), and Meijer (R-MI). The list of national organizations will be updated as additional organizations endorse the letter. Questions? Please contact Alyson Northrup with the Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs at anorthrup@amchp.org.
Final House DCL FY22 Maternal Health - List of Members of Congress
Letter of National Organizations in Support of Funding for Maternal Health
APTR joined 85 organizations, representing associations and specialty societies, to thank the House and Senate Leadership for investing in physician training by adding 1,000 new Medicare-supported graduate medical education (GME) positions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021. These slots are critical to helping ensure a workforce to care for patients and communities. The United States is facing a projected physician shortage of between 54,100 and 139,000 physicians by 2033, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only put more pressure on the physician workforce as physicians and providers have mobilized across the country to respond to this public health emergency. Federal support for GME has been effectively frozen since 1997, and while the nation’s teaching hospitals continue to invest their own resources to train physicians over the cap, these new slots will alleviate some of the pressure they have been facing and allow them to increase training. The residency positions supported by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 are a needed first step to train enough physicians to meet our growing and aging population. APTR is particularly pleased that additional steps were taken to prioritize training programs in rural areas and providers that care for underserved communities in the distribution of these new residency positions. House Letter Senate Letter Leadership Letter
APTR joined nearly 100 organizations in urging the administration to immediately reverse its decision to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the collection of COVID-19 patient data. The letter was shared with the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
The administration’s abrupt decision to establish a new data collection procedure that bypasses the CDC as a recipient of data on patients hospitalized with COVID-19 is alarming and will undermine efforts to control the pandemic at a time when COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are surging across the country. Placing medical data collection outside of the CDC puts the quality and integrity of the data at risk threatening to seriously undermine our country’s response to COVID-19. Data transparency is particularly critical in the midst of an unprecedented national health crisis that is disproportionately impacting certain segments of the U.S. population, including Black/African American, Latinx and Native American communities. Sign-on Letter
APTR and 346 health and public health organizations released a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar stating that the expertise of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and all public health agencies is critical to protecting Americans' health during the COVID-19 crisis. The authoring organizations expressed "deep concern" about increasing reports of resistance to evidence-based public health messages and threats to public health leaders and agencies, and called on the Secretary to be an advocate for public health. At this sentinel moment, during the worst public health emergency in over a century, all of the nation's leaders must resist any efforts that would undermine the critical role of the CDC to respond to the pandemic and must be an advocate for increased investment in public health, said the letter signatories. The letter urges Secretary Azar to speak up and amplify the critical role of CDC and that of all public health agencies during this monumental crisis. The letter furthermore calls on Secretary Azar to be an advocate for increased funding for CDC's core budget. While emergency supplemental funding has been critical to begin to address the immediate COVID-19 response needs, robust, sustained, and predictable funding for its full public health mission is essential to sustain its public health activities and to prevent the next emergency. Today's laser focus should be on preventing further deaths and disruptions due to the pandemic and the CDC, as the world's premier public health institution, should be at the helm of that effort. Sign-on Letter
APTR and 32 other public health and environmental health organizations urged Congress to build upon last year’s additional funding with an additional increase of $12 million for ATSDR in the FY 2021 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.
ATSDR protects the health of our communities in a variety of ways by preventing exposure to harmful contaminants in our soil, water and air; responding to requests from communities across the country to protect people from exposure to harmful levels of substances in the environment; providing funds and support to state and local health departments and supporting environmental health professionals in regional and field offices; and, along with Atlanta-based staff at ATSDR headquarters, experts readily respond around the clock to environmental-health threats from natural disasters, chemical spills and other emergencies.
An increase to the agency’s FY 2021 budget would allow ATSDR to continue the progress made with the FY 2020 funding increase. Specifically, the additional funding will allow ATSDR to enhance its mission by expanding its support to health departments, recruit additional staff to investigate community concerns and increase its technical support to healthcare and public health professionals.
Sign-On Letter
APTR joined 77 health professions organizations in a letter urging congressional and COVID taskforce leadership to take regulatory or legislative action to maintain work authorization for individuals currently in Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status during the COVID-19 national emergency.
Additionally, we urged Congress to include a more permanent fix in the fourth COVID-19 emergency supplemental, such as the bipartisan Dream Act of 2019 (S. 874) or the House-passed American Dream and Promise Act of 2019 (H.R. 6). These bills would ensure that undocumented young people are able to continue their employment, education, training, and research in the health professions.
Sign-on Letter
APTR and several groups recommend $4.5 billion in additional annual funding for CDC, state, local, tribal and territorial core public health infrastructure to pay for such essential activities as disease surveillance, epidemiology, laboratory capacity, all-hazards preparedness and response; policy development and support; communications; community partnership development; and organizational competencies.
This investment is critical to support the public health system as it rebuilds from the COVID-19 response, but also to strengthen it before the next pandemic hits and avoid the loss of life and social and economic disruption we are facing today
The U.S. has followed a pattern of underfunding of vital public health services, followed by a crisis, a quick infusion of cash, and then dwindling investments over time. We must think not just of the short-term needs of this pandemic, but the long-term readiness of our nation.
Sign-On Letter
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APTR is grateful for the quick passage of the $8.3 supplemental appropriations bill, the “Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act.” This funding will help state and local public health officials with their response to the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19. As the United States faces a sharp increase in community transmission of COVID-19, APTR recognizes that additional actions are needed by the Administration and Congress.
The absence of paid sick leave has been linked to or has exacerbated infectious disease outbreaks.iv During the H1N1 pandemic of 2009, an estimated 7 million individuals were infected as a result of contagious coworkers not staying home from work when ill.v Further exacerbating employee pressure to report to work is the fact that only three out of every 10 American adults have emergency savings that they could tap if forced to stay home without paid leave.vi These kinds of inequities and vulnerabilities raise serious consequences for families, and for the economy as a whole.
While short-term steps are needed to address the current challenges, additional action is needed to ensure that paid sick days and other economic supports are readily available to all Americans, regardless of their socioeconomic status. We, the signatory organizations, strongly encourage the Administration and Congress to pass and implement federal paid sick days legislation.
Sign-on Letter
APTR has joined 70 health professions organizations in urging legislative action by Senate leadership for individuals with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and other undocumented youth. The letter urges the Senate to pass either the American Dream and Promise Act of 2019 or the Dream Act of 2019. These bills would ensure that members of the health care workforce approved for DACA and other undocumented young people are able to continue their employment, education, training, and research in the health professions. By providing a legal pathway to citizenship for undocumented Americans who came to the U.S. as children, Congress can help our country produce a diverse and culturally responsive health care workforce to meet the needs of underserved populations and promote health equity.
View the Signed Dream Act Health Professions Letter
APTR and other national, regional, and local organizations request from Congress representatives the addition of specific report language within the FY 2020 LHHS appropriations bill to conduct an interagency report on HHS agency roles in addressing maternal mental health disorders.
Roughly twenty percent of childbearing women experience a maternal mental health disorder during pregnancy or within one year after their pregnancy and this percentage can increase to fifty percent when factoring in social determinants of health. Unfortunately, untreated maternal mental health disorders cost the US an estimated $14.2 billion in societal costs for births in 2017. These societal costs include maternal productivity loss, a greater use of welfare and Medicaid, and overall higher healthcare costs due to adverse maternal and child health outcomes.
To build on Congress' work to address maternal mental health, APTR and other organizations request language involving interagency roles to address maternal mental health disorders from the House FY 2020 LHHS appropriations report be included in the bipartisan Bring Postpartum Depression Out of the Shadows Act of 2015; a part of the 21st Century Cures Act.
Sign-on Letter: Maternal Mental Health Interagency Report
APTR and members of the Friends of HRSA Coalition recommend providing $8.56 billion for discretionary Health Resources and Services Administration programs in the FY 2020 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill. We are grateful for the increases provided for HRSA programs in FY 2019, but HRSA’s discretionary budget authority is far too low to effectively address the nation’s current health care needs. Additional funding will allow HRSA to fill preventive and primary health care gaps and to build upon the achievements of HRSA’s more than 90 programs and more than 3,000 grantees.
Investing in programs that keep people healthy is important for the vitality of our nation. HRSA programs have been successful in improving the health of people at highest risk for poor health outcomes. The agency supports efforts that increase access to quality care, better leverage existing investments and achieve improved health outcomes at a lower cost.
Increased HRSA Discretionary Funding Letter
APTR joined public health and environmental health organizations to express our support for increased funding for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Environmental Health in the FY 2020 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill. APTR urged the leaders of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies to build upon the FY 2019 increase and provide at least $230 million in the FY 2020 bill. This amount will ensure that NCEH programs are adequately funded including:
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Increasing funding for the Climate and Health Program which is currently providing 16 states, two cities, three tribes and three territories (covering 50 percent of the U.S. population) with funding to help diagnose and prepare for the serious adverse health impacts of climate change including extreme heat, more severe storms, floods, droughts, increases in air pollution and pollen and the spread of infectious and vector-borne diseases – such as Lyme disease and dengue fever.
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Improving environmental health surveillance
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Expanding critically underfunded childhood lead poisoning prevention activities
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Expanding the National Biomonitoring Network by providing additional resources to increase the number of states that can undertake state population-based biomonitoring surveillance.
- Strengthening and expanding funding to additional states under the National Asthma Control Program that tracks asthma prevalence, promotes asthma control and prevention and builds capacity in state programs.
FY 2020 Appropriations Letter for CDC NCEH
APTR joined public health and medical organizations to thank Senator Edward Markey (MA) and Congressman Matt Cartwright (PA) for their ongoing leadership to address the health impacts of climate change through the reintroduction of the Climate Change Health Protection and Promotion Act. By prioritizing the public health response to climate change, this legislation would bolster the capacity of our public health system and help to avoid many preventable illnesses and deaths.
This legislation will help the public health and medical communities address the challenges of climate change in several ways. First, it would require the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a national strategic action plan for addressing the public health impacts of climate change. Acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and in coordination with other federal agencies, the bill would enhance forecasting and modeling, track environmental and disease data and expand the science base to better understand the relationship between climate change and health outcomes. Importantly, the legislation would prioritize activities to address the health impacts of climate change including preparedness planning, surveillance, education and training in order to ensure that our already overburdened state and local public health workforce can adequately address the health impacts of climate change while continuing to respond to other ongoing threats and challenges. The legislation would also provide for the development of tools to educate public health and health care professionals and the public about the health impacts of climate change.
Climate Change Health Protection and Promotion Act Letter
APTR joined 225 state and national organizations to urge the Chairs of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies to provide at least $7.8 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s programs in the FY 2020 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations bill. We believe that Congress should prioritize funding for all of the activities and programs supported by CDC which are essential to protect the health of the American people. We are grateful for the important increases provided for CDC programs in FY 2019 and we urge Congress to continue efforts to build upon these investments to strengthen all of CDC’s programs. We also urged the continued support of the Prevention and Public Health Fund which currently makes up more than 10 percent of CDC’s budget and provides funding for critical public health and prevention activities.
It is notable that more than 70 percent of CDC’s budget supports public health and prevention activities by state and local health organizations and agencies, national public health partners and academic institutions. In addition to ensuring a strong public health infrastructure and protecting Americans from public health threats and emergencies, CDC programs are crucial to reducing health care costs and improving health. Despite the progress CDC has made to meet these needs, the agency’s programs have been woefully underfunded.
FY2020 CDC Coalition Letter
The Association for Prevention Teaching and Research joined public health, environmental health and other supporting organizations to express support for increased funding for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Environmental Health in the FY 2020 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.
As Congress moves forward with the appropriations process for FY 2020, APTR urges at least $230 million to NCEH to ensure all if its programs are adequately funded. This funding will help ensure that NCEH can work to strengthen and expand its programs.
Increasing our investments in environmental health prevention activities today will help reduce illness, disease, injury and even death. Relying solely on our health care system to tackle the dangerous problems – dirty air and water, toxic substances, lead poisoning, extreme weather and many other environmental hazards – that occur outside the walls of the clinic is a costly and ineffective solution. However, adequate investments today and into the future in core environmental health activities can be a critical down payment on health, productivity and happiness of countless Americans.
FY2020 Appropriations Letter for CDC NCEH
The Association for Prevention Teaching and Research (APTR) stands in solidarity with other leading medical and public health organizations in opposing the Trump Administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy. While APTR is gratified that the President finally ended the separation of children from parents crossing the border into the U.S., this Administration’s continuation of its “zero tolerance” immigration policy perpetuates the detention of children and offers no relief for the more than 2,000 children currently separated from their families and living in detention centers.
Traumatic or stressful childhood experiences lead to increased health risks that include depression, behavioral problems and emotional issues, and are associated with an increased risk of premature death (Am J Prev Med. 2009 Nov;37(5):389-96). Additional risks include impaired brain development, as well as an increase of long-term risks of cardiovascular disease and mental illness. These children and their parents may have already experienced violence and trauma within and while fleeing their homeland, compounding the stress they face from being held in an unfamiliar facility under restrictive conditions.
It is critical that these children be reunited immediately with their families to avoid further separation and detention that is harmful to healthy childhood development and detrimental to both short and long-term health and well-being. These children should have immediate access to qualified health care professionals to assess their physical and mental well-being.
This statement was developed by the APTR Policy Committee.
APTR is pleased to announce that its journal, the American Journal of Preventive Medicine has joined other research outlets in supporting firearms research by providing public access to the journal's published research on gun violence, free of charge. AJPM, which is jointly sponsored by APTR, believes gun violence is an important public health issue and is committed to supporting research at the intersection of firearms and public health, especially given the lack of funding support and other legislative obstacles that have stifled firearms research in the United States.
The new Firearms Research collection includes about 40 articles published since 2011, and it can be found at http://www.ajpmonline.org/content/firearm_research and on Science Direct.
APTR joined other national medical, public health, and research organizations in urging congress to find a bipartisan path forward for comprehensive legislative solutions to firearm-related injuries and fatalities. Federal policy should address gun violence with the same dedication applied to other successful public health initiatives over the past 25 years, such as immunizations, public sanitation, and motor vehicle safety.
In a letter sent to every member of congress, APTR stated that, "strengthening firearm background checks and supporting federal research and public health surveillance on firearm-related injuries and fatalities would provide meaningful progress in achieving a public health solution for this issue." The letter was organized by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Letter sent to House
Letter sent to Senate
APTR has signed on to support the Health Professions and Nursing Education Coalition's (HPNEC) advocacy and education efforts on the hill. HPNEC is recommending $580 million for HRSA's Title VII health professions and Title VIII nursing workforce development programs.
Title VII and Title VIII programs are essential to prepare the next generation of medical professions to the changing health care needs of the nation's growing and aging population. They further serve to bring together knowledge and skills across disciplines to provide effective, efficient, and coordinated care.
View HPNEC's Budget Letter and Brochure:
HPNEC Budget Letter >>
HPNEC Brochure >>
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