317 Coalition

Legislative Update - March, 2008

In February, the President submitted his proposed fiscal year (FY) 2009 Budget to Congress for the federal fiscal year that begins on October 1, 2008. The President has proposed no change in the funding levels for the Section 317 Immunization program.

The 317 Coalition is advocating for $802.5 million for the 317 program, which is an additional $275 million over the President’s request and the FY 2008 level. The increase would be used for an increase for vaccine purchase and operations grants to state and local health departments for underserved children, adolescents and adults. (Click here for additional information)

In March 2008, CDC sent a report to Congress that indicates that the 317 program would need to be funded at the level of over $1.2 billion if it were to fully fund vaccine purchase, operations and safety needs of the program to reach eligible underserved children, adolescents and adults.

Accomplishments

Since April 2006, the 317 Coalition has grown from a concept to a total of 156 member organizations (46 national and 110 local) representing 45 states. During the past two fiscal years, the Coalition has advocated for increased funding for this essential public health program.

In FY 2007, the House passed an appropriations bill that included a $95 million increase for the 317 program. Ultimately, this increase was reduced to $32 million increase in the final legislation, but this was a remarkable achievement in that only a handful of HHS programs received a funding increase that year. In 2007, the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations included appropriations report language recommended by the Coalition directing CDC to estimate the level of funding needed to fully support the 317 program. This first-of-its-kind report was sent to Congress in April 2007, and indicated that over $800 would be needed to support vaccine purchase and infrastructure grants. This report to Congress was preceded the Institute of Medicine’s estimate of program need that was identified in the 2000 IOM report, Calling the Shots.

In FY 2008, the House passed an appropriations bill that included a $91 million increase for the 317 program, and this was later reduced to $68 million in bill that was sent to the President. Unfortunately, the President vetoed this appropriation bill. The final FY 2008 appropriation that was enacted contained a $15.5 million increase for the 317 immunization program and $19.5 million to increase the demand for seasonal flu for a total increase of $35 million in the FY 2008 omnibus appropriations bill.

Also during the FY 2008 appropriations cycle, the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations again included appropriations report language recommended by the Coalition directing CDC to estimate the level of funding needed to fully support the 317 program. The latest report, sent to Congress in March 2008, estimated the program need at over $1.1 billion (Click here to see report).

Background on the FY 2009 President’s Budget

On February 4th, the President submitted his proposed FY 2009 Budget to Congress, which is the federal fiscal year which begins on October 1, 2008 and ends on September 30, 2009. The President’s second term will end on January 20, 2009, so this will be his last budget submission to Congress. The $3.1 trillion budget is estimated to be $176 billion (6%) above the current year. The budget deficit (difference between revenues and spending on an annual basis) is estimated to be $407 billion in 2009 and reach a surplus of $48 billion in 2012, but excludes the costs of the war Iraq and Afghanistan from the calculation beyond this year.

Discretionary funding that is provided through the 12 annual appropriations bills is estimated to be $1.2 trillion, which is an increase of $46 billion or 4.9%. Most of the increase, however, is for defense purposes, with domestic spending largely frozen or cut. The discretionary total breakdown is comprised of an increase of $44.9 billion (8.2%) for security (defense, homeland security and international affairs) which totals $730 billion, and a $1.3 billion (0.3%) increase for non-security or domestic programs which total $482 billion. The request includes an additional $70 billion for Iraq on top of the $126 billion for Iraq that was previously requested and not yet appropriated by Congress.

Within the Department of Health and Human Services, where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the 317 Program reside, discretionary spending is cut by a net $2 billion, from $70.6 billion in 2008 to $68.4 billion in 2009. CDC is cut by $475 million (7%) for a total of $6.0 billion. The 317 Program is level funded at $527 million.