In late December, Congress passed an omnibus spending bill funding federal agencies through the remainder of Fiscal Year (FY) 2023. CSTE was pleased to see its advocacy efforts pay off with an increase to $175 million for the Data Modernization Initiative (DMI) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Given the wide range of competing budgetary priorities across the federal government, this $75 million increased investment indicates that Congress continues to recognize the importance of modernizing our nation’s public health data systems. The omnibus bill also included $9.2 billion for CDC overall, an increase of $760 million, $350 million for Public Health Infrastructure and Capacity, an increase of $150 million, and $50 million for the new Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics.

After many wins in FY 2023, there are new factors to consider as the FY 2024 appropriations process begins. First, the mid-term elections resulted in a slim Republican majority in the House, with Democrats retaining control of the Senate. House Republicans have continuously expressed a desire to cut spending. As Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) jockeyed to be elected Speaker of the House, reports indicated an informal agreement between him and more conservative members of the Republican party to limit FY 2024 spending to FY 2022 levels. The most drastic of proposed cuts are likely to impact non-defense discretionary spending, as opposed to the military budget. While such draconian cuts will be difficult to achieve with a Democratic Senate and President, we may indeed see protracted funding battles in Congress resulting in continuing resolutions and the threat of government shutdowns down the line.

On January 19, the U.S. reached its statutorily imposed debt ceiling and the Treasury began using extraordinary measures to ensure the federal government could fulfill its credit obligations. Congress must come to an agreement to raise the debt ceiling before the extraordinary measures are exhausted sometime this summer. Conservative Republicans have discussed leveraging the debt ceiling increase to negotiate spending cuts. We will continue to follow this debate and its potential repercussions on future domestic spending, including for critical public health programs.

While the new makeup of Congress and the debt ceiling debate may pose obstacles to further robust increases, CSTE will continue its ambitious advocacy efforts to secure long-term sustained funding for DMI. For FY 2024, CSTE and partners in the Data: Elemental to Health campaign are pushing for a $250 million investment in DMI, which would help further scale up efforts at the federal level, and in State, Territorial, Local, and Tribal (STLT) health agencies. The President’s annual budget request, usually released in February, is expected to be delayed this year.

CSTE is committed to bipartisan action on DMI and will continue to work with legislators on both sides of the aisle to achieve long-term support for a modernized public health infrastructure. COVID-19 and other recent threats have made universally clear the importance of public health surveillance and analytics and have demonstrated the need for robust sustained investment in DMI. While we seek increased appropriations for FY 2024, CSTE and our partners will also continue to call for a dedicated investment of at least $7.84 billion over five years to ensure STLT agencies have modern systems that keep pace with evolving technology.

For more information on CSTE’s DMI advocacy, visit https://www.cste.org/page/DM-2021.

Meghan Riley is vice president and Noah Hames is policy associate at CRD Associates, LLC, which represents CSTE’s interests on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC