09 April 2021 President Biden releases $1.5T 2022 budget request On Friday (April 9), President Joe Biden released his first budget request, calling on Congress to provide $769 billion for non-defense programs and $753 billion in national defense funding for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022. The president's request amounts to a 16% increase over current funding levels for domestic programs and a roughly 1.5% increase for the Pentagon. The budget requests $131.7 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a $25 billion or 23.5% increase from the 2021 enacted level. According to a summary document, the HHS request "builds upon investments already made to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by prioritizing investments to prepare for future public health emergencies and advance global health security; addresses the opioid crisis; expands biomedical capabilities; promotes health and social service equity; expands access to child care and early learning programs; strengthens social services; supports survivors of domestic violence; and invests in civil rights enforcement." The request calls for $8.7 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a $1.6 billion increase over FY 2021 and the largest increase in nearly 20 years "to restore capacity to the world's preeminent public health agency." This includes funding to support core public health capacity improvements in States and Territories, modernize public health data collection nationwide, train new epidemiologists and other public health experts, and build international capacity to detect, prepare for, and respond to emerging global threats. The budget also calls for a $150 million increase for CDC's Social Determinants of Health program, in part to enhance data collection on racial and ethnic communities. It also includes $95 million for the National Strategic Stockpile to replenish medical supplies and continue restructuring that began during the health crisis. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) would also get a bump of $9 billion to a level of $51 billion, including $6.5 billion to launch the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to "drive transformational innovation in health research and speed application and implementation of health breakthroughs," with an initial focus on cancer and other diseases such as diabetes and Alzheimer's. The budget also invests $10.7 billion to support research, prevention, treatment and recovery support services to help end the opioid crisis, including targeted investments to support populations with unique needs, and doubles spending on the Community Mental Health Services Block Grant Program for states, among other items. See below a chart of key health care initiatives outlined by the Biden administration in their budget request and visit the budget landing page for more details.
Document ID: 2021-0741 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
