President Biden released his Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 budget proposal on May 28, calling for historic increases in funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including resources to carry out public health efforts at the state and local levels. Recognizing the importance of CDC’s role in protecting the health of the nation, the budget requests just over $9.5 billion for CDC, an increase of more than $1.6 billion. Funding of this level would represent the largest increase in the CDC’s budget in nearly two decades.

As COVID-19 vaccines proliferate, case counts drop, and businesses reopen across the country, we have turned an important corner in the pandemic response. However, as epidemiologists, CSTE members know that the public health response will continue as we learn the duration of effectiveness of the vaccines and continue to track cases of COVID-19, including rare breakthrough cases in vaccinated individuals. More importantly, we know that the COVID-19 pandemic will not be the last public health crisis to gravely threaten our society. We will continue to investigate outbreaks not only of infectious viruses, but also threats like influenza, measles, and HPV and public health threats caused by natural disasters. To carry out our work, we need significant federal investment in modern data systems and in the public health workforce that executes it. The President’s budget makes public health a priority, and Congress should implement these increases, but this cannot be a one-time investment – CDC and public health need sustained increases like this to truly support our infrastructure.

COVID-19 exposed the deadly gaps in our public health data infrastructure. With our partners at the Data: Elemental to Health campaign, CSTE has advocated for years for federal funding to upgrade our nation’s antiquated public health surveillance systems. Thanks to our advocacy, Congress has appropriated nearly $1 billion in funding, mostly through COVID-19 relief legislation, to the public health Data Modernization Initiative (DMI) at CDC. This injection of funding is critical to the COVID-19 response and beyond, but to truly transform our nation’s public health data systems we need robust, sustained funding that allows us to keep pace with evolving technology. The President’s budget proposal will put us on that path. It recommends $150 million for DMI in Fiscal Year 2022 – a $100 million increase over the current fiscal year. These resources will help public health meet rapidly evolving technology needs and make critical investments in data modernization at the state and local levels.

As we know too well, new technology and data systems will not be effective without a highly skilled public health workforce to operate them. Following a historic investment of $7 billion in the public health workforce through the American Rescue Plan, the President’s FY 2022 budget proposes another important increase of $50 million for Public Health Workforce and Career Development. This funding, with the goal of building up the workforce of epidemiologists, lab scientists, data analysts and other key public health roles, is sorely needed.

The President’s FY 2022 budget sets forth the Biden administration’s priorities, but Congress ultimately determines how much funding each federal agency and program will receive. In the coming months, the Appropriations Committees in the House of Representatives and Senate will draft and debate legislation to fund the federal government before the fiscal year ends on September 30. The full House and Senate will eventually vote on a final funding package. Throughout this process, CSTE will communicate with key representatives and staff on Capitol Hill to continue to illustrate the need for robust annual funding for DMI and critical support for the public health workforce.

Meghan Riley is vice president at Cavarocchi Ruscio Dennis Associates, LLC, which represents CSTE’s interests on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC