FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE          
Friday, December 5, 2014

CONTACT:
Jonelle Trimmer (Rep. Matsui) 202-225-7163
Chris Meagher (Rep. Capps) 202-225-3601
Ben Soskin (Rep. Roybal-Allard) 202-225-1766

Reps. Matsui, Capps & Roybal-Allard Lead Letter Urging Full Funding for Prevention and Public Health Fund

Letter is signed by 18 Members of the Congressional California Democratic Delegation

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congresswomen Doris Matsui (CA-06), Lois Capps (CA-24), and Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-40) led a letter to the House Committee on Appropriations urging full funding for the Prevention and Public Health Fund (PPHF) in any fiscal year (FY) 2015 appropriations legislation.  The PPHF supports critical investments in prevention and evidence-based public health activities and remains our nation’s only mandatory investment in keeping Americans healthy before they develop burdensome and costly illness and disease.

The letter is signed by 18 Members of the Congressional California Democratic Delegation.  Over the past five years, California has received more than $235 million in PPHF grants to strengthen the state’s public health system and make much-needed investments in prevention efforts.  Projects include efforts targeted at reducing tobacco use, increasing physical activity, improving nutrition, promoting school health, and addressing health disparities.  

In addition to Congresswomen Matsui, Capps and Roybal-Allard, signatories include Representatives Henry Waxman (CA-33), Maxine Waters (CA-43), Loretta Sanchez (CA-46), Barbara Lee (CA-13), Mike Thompson (CA-05), Grace Napolitano (CA-32), Michael Honda (CA-17), Janice Hahn (CA-44), Linda Sanchez (CA-38), Jerry McNerney (CA-09), Jackie Speier (CA-14), Judy Chu (CA-27), John Garamendi (CA-03), Mark Takano (CA-41), and Jared Huffman (CA-02).

A PDF copy of the signed letter is available here.

The full text of the letter is below:

December 5, 2014

The Honorable Harold Rogers
Committee on Appropriations
U.S. House of Representatives
H-305, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Nita M. Lowey
Committee on Appropriations
U.S. House of Representatives
1016 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Lowey:

As members of California’s Congressional delegation, we respectfully write to express our support for the Prevention and Public Health Fund (the Fund) and to encourage you to include full allocations in the statutory amount of $1 billion in any fiscal year (FY) 2015 appropriations legislation. We thank the Committees for fully allocating the Fund in FY2014 and encourage continuation of this bipartisan commitment to prevention.  

As you know, since its inception in 2010, the Fund has supported critical investments in prevention and evidence-based public health activities in all 50 states, including California, and remains our nation’s only mandatory investment in keeping Americans healthy before they develop burdensome and costly illness and disease.  Over the past five years, California has received more than $235 million in Prevention Fund grants to strengthen our state’s public health system and make much-needed investments in prevention efforts.  

One of the first tremendous successes of the Fund has been the Tips from Former Smokers campaign.  Within the first week of the launch of this media campaign, California saw an increase of more than 300 percent in calls to 1-800-QUIT-NOW.  A peer-reviewed study in The Lancet estimates that the FY2012 campaign alone propelled 1.6 million Americans to attempt to quit smoking, with 100,000 Americans having successfully quit one year later.  The same study estimates that this may have added as much as half a million quality-adjusted life-years to the U.S. population.  The $54 million spent on this campaign in FY2012 compared to the nearly $200 billion that smoking annually costs this country makes this campaign not only common sense, but also a proven life-saver.

In September 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awarded $211 million nationwide in a new series of community prevention grants funded in part by the Prevention and Public Health Fund to enable a variety of grantees, including state and local health departments, community-based coalitions, national not-for-profits, and others, to work collaboratively to address major health care cost drivers like tobacco use, physical inactivity, and poor nutrition.  A sizable proportion of these investments is also specifically aimed at addressing racial and ethnic health disparities in chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes.  A vast majority of these funding opportunities were made possible by the Fund.

The Fund has also greatly expanded the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity program at a critical time. We have seen recently that infectious disease outbreaks require a strong, coordinated public health response. These cross-cutting grants to states and territories have enhanced our nation’s ability to detect, test for, and respond to outbreaks like Ebola, West Nile Virus, and flu. Recent investments focus on implementation of electronic laboratory reporting – essential to a rapid public health investigation.

The fiscal restraints imposed by the Budget Control Act discretionary caps and sequestration means we have many difficult choices to make in passing our annual appropriations bills in this year and for many years to come.  However, we know that prevention is the key to lowering health care costs, creating a healthier and more productive population, and protecting Americans from the very real threat of disasters and emerging infectious disease.  The Fund represents our best and only opportunity in which to do so. As you work to develop an agreement on FY15 appropriations, we urge you to fully fund the Prevention and Public Health Fund.