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The Honorable Xavier Becerra Secretary U.S. Department of Health & Human Services 200 Independence Avenue SW Washington, D.C. 20201

The Honorable Shalanda Young Director Office of Management and Budget Executive Office of the President Washington, D.C. 20503

Dear Secretary Becerra and Director Young: 

On behalf of the undersigned organizations representing a wide range of public health, scientific and clinical professionals, we are writing to express our concerns with potential rescissions to the COVID-19 relief funds at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We urge you to protect these funds from the FY2024 rescissions and from cuts in subsequent budget agreements.

The CDC’s emergency relief funds are critical to protecting public health through a variety of essential programs, including but not limited to, Advanced Molecular Detection, Public Health Data Modernization and the National Wastewater Surveillance System. While these programs were critical in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, their value in protecting all Americans from emerging threats extends well beyond that. Pulling these funds back will undermine the progress we have made through these programs. 

With several major emerging threats to our national health security on the immediate horizon including H5N1, measles, dengue fever and mpox, if these programs are cut, it will limit our ability to respond in a way that the public expects and deserves. We must not continue to fund public health in boom-and-bust cycles. We need to invest in our public health infrastructure and these programs support a nimble, adaptive, response-ready public health system. Ensuring that the remaining COVID-19 funding stays at CDC, in addition to providing robust annual funding, is critical to this investment. 

Each of the programs supported by the emergency relief funds are essential to our public health infrastructure and to our economic and national health security. Cutting funding to these programs would severely set back, if not eliminate, the critical work being done, making it harder and more expensive to build back in the future, and will directly impair our ability to detect and respond to emerging threats. 

We strongly urge you not to cut the CDC’s remaining emergency relief funds—these are critical dollars that the agency and all levels of the public health system are relying on. We look forward to continuing to engage with you to protect public health. Please reach out to Erin Morton (emorton@dc-crd.com) with any questions and thank you for your consideration of this request. 

Sincerely, 

AdvaMedDx
AIDS °®¶¹´«Ã½
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy
American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
American College of Preventive Medicine
American Lung Association
American Mosquito Control Association
American Psychological Association Services, Inc.
American Public Health Association
American Society for °®¶¹´«Ã½
American Society of Hematology
American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Association for Molecular Pathology
Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology
Association of American Medical Colleges
Association of Immunization Managers
Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs
Association of Public Health Laboratories
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
Autoimmune Association
Big Cities Health Coalition
Biophysical Society
Clear Labs
Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists
Entomological Society of America
Georgia Mosquito Control Association
Gerontological Society of America
HIMSS
HIV Medicine Association
IC&RC
Infectious Diseases Society of America
International Safety Equipment Association
Midwest Center of Excellence for Vector-Borne Disease
Naphsis
NASTAD
National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD)
National Association of County and City Health Officials
National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners
National Coalition of STD Directors
National Environmental Health Association
National Foundation for Infectious Diseases
National League for Nursing
National Network of Public Health Institutes
Northeast Regional Center for Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases
Pacific Southwest Center of Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases
Partners In Health
Prevent Blindness
Public Health Accreditation Board
Public Health Institute
Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District
Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America
Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine
Society for Public Health Education
Society for Women's Health Research
Southeastern Center of Excellence in vector-Borne Disease
Trust for America's Health
US Biologic, Inc.
Vaccinate Your Family