Action Needed

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1. Call or email your senators and ask them to sign on to the Sen. Reed (D-RI) letter and call or email your Representative to sign on to the Rep. Schiff (D-CA) letter requesting $1.13 billion in funding for the Section 317 Immunization Program in the FY24 Labor-HHS appropriations bill.​​​​

 

2. In your message, give an example of why your state needs additional funding for vaccine program operations and infrastructure, and vaccine purchases. Sample talking points are included below.​

 

3. Your senators and representative may have signed on to the same letter last year. If so, thank them and ask for their continued support by signing on again this year. The list of members who signed on is below.*

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Contacting a Congressional Office

 

•  The U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 can connect you with your senators and representative. It is best to call the Washington office, not the local district office. Go online to www.senate.gov and www.house.gov and search by state and zip code to find your Members of Congress. From there, you can directly call or email their offices. From there, you can go to the member’s website to find an office number and email form. As you fill out these forms, be sure to use the provided talking points in the body of your email.    

 

• When calling your senators or representative’s office, ask to speak with the staff person who handles Health and Human Services appropriations for the office (specifically the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)).  

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• When you reach the staffer, very briefly identify your professional affiliation and work related to immunization, make the ask, and provide a few talking points or a story specific to your state.  

 

Talking Points/Content for Email

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• I am I am contacting you to ask that the Representative support our request to provide $1.13 billion for the 317 Immunization Program by signing on to a letter being circulated by Representative Schiff’s Office.​

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• Vaccines are one of the greatest success stories in public health and are among the most cost-effective ways to prevent disease. Childhood immunizations over the past twenty-five years have prevented 472 million illnesses and 1,052,000 deaths and saved $479 billion in direct costs and $2.2 trillion in societal costs. For each dollar invested in the U.S. childhood immunization program, there are nearly $11 in societal savings and $3 in direct medical savings.

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• Unfortunately, millions of children and adults have missed routine vaccinations due to the pandemic, putting years of success in jeopardy. Kindergarten vaccination coverage has dropped a total of two percentage points since the start of the pandemic – from 95% reported in the 2019-20 school year to 93% in the 2021-22 school year. This means there are more than 275,000 kindergartners who may not be completely protected against common, and sometimes very serious, vaccine-preventable diseases.

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• So far this year, measles outbreaks continue to rise with 58 cases across 17 states, including seven outbreaks compared to 58 total cases and four outbreaks reported for the entire year in 2023. CDC estimates it can cost over $140,000 to contain one individual case of measles.

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• The U.S. spends nearly $27 billion annually to treat four vaccine-preventable illnesses – flu, pertussis, pneumococcal, and shingles.​

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• Providing $1.13 billion for the Section 317 Program in FY25 would sustain the improvements made through the emergency supplemental bills to ensure both routine immunizations are restored and future preparedness is assured.

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• I can email you the Dear Colleague with the staff contact in Representative Schiff’s office.

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Sen. Reed’s Dear Colleague Letter

Staff Contact: Jill Boland Jill_Boland@reed.senate.gov

 

Rep. Schiff’s Dear Colleague Letter

Staff Contact: Kaitlyn Kelly Kaitlyn.Kelly@mail.house.gov

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