Budget and Appropriations:

FY18: Lawmakers have just a few more weeks remaining before the current continuing resolution (CR) expires on March 23.  But appropriators had planned to send an omnibus spending bill to the House floor by next week, specifically March 15.

Rumors are that while appropriators have made significant progress on FY18 spending bills but there are still real disagreements and the Labor-HHS bill is cited as one of those which may be causing significant hurdles!  In particular, Title X/family planning is a possible sticking point as well as changes in mandatory spending programs (CHIMPs).  These sticking points raise the small possibility that the Labor-HHS bill could be funded through a full-year CR for the remainder of FY19. Discussions are on-going—we will keep you updated!

CHIMPS are provisions in federal funding bills that make changes to mandatory spending programs, usually reducing or limiting them in some form. The savings are then available to be used to offset an increase in discretionary spending. CHIMPs have been used for years in the LHHS bill, but there is controversy to continue using them now, as they are considered budgetary “gimmicks.” Not being able to use CHIMPS would mean that there would be less money in the LHHS bill to allocate to programs funded by the bill.

FY19: Although FY18 funding is STILL not finalized, members of Congress are in the process of developing FY19 funding bills, including negotiating funding for the Division of STD Prevention.  On the House side, Representative Cicilline from Rhode Island, with support from NCSD, has written a letter to fellow members asking the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services to support $227.3 million for sexually transmitted disease prevention at the CDC.

To ensure that CDC receives this crucial funding, we are asking that you reach out to your representatives before March 15^th and request that they sign onto Rep. Cicilline’s letter supporting adequate funding for DSTDP.