The House is scheduled to vote on its Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) funding bill the week of July 29. As drafted, this legislation will erode the country’s investment in vital public health and biomedical research programs. Overall, the bill cuts the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) by 7 percent or $8.5 billion. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is cut by 22 percent and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is flat funded and reorganized in the bill. The reorganization of NIH is particularly concerning since it collapses the 27 institutes and centers into 15 without the benefit of public hearings by the authorizing committees and input from NIH and stakeholders.
Members of the House need to hear from their constituents that this legislation would undermine public health and biomedical research, which would detrimentally affect patients with hematologic conditions. Please take a moment to visit the ASH website to contact your representative and urge them to oppose the FY 2025 Labor-HHS appropriations bill unless there are significant changes.