ASTHO Supports President Biden’s 2023 Budget, Citing Increased Funding for Public Health Infrastructure and More

March 29, 2022

ARLINGTON, VA—Michael Fraser, PhD, chief executive officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), issued the following statement in reaction to President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2023 discretionary budget proposal.

“ASTHO is pleased that President Biden’s budget request acknowledges the importance of supporting core public health infrastructure, strengthening the public health workforce, improving our immunization infrastructure, modernizing how we collect and analyze public health data, and conducting research on long COVID. We also appreciate the proposal to provide mandatory funding for pandemic preparedness, which if enacted would further bolster CDC, FDA, ASPR, and other health agencies.

“We applaud the proposed budget increases for opioid overdose prevention, mental health and substance use prevention activities, ending the HIV epidemic, improving health equity through the CDC’s Social Determinants of Health Initiative, increased resources that will improve and increase vaccination rates for children and adults, and bolstering environmental health activities.”

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ASTHO is the national nonprofit organization representing the public health agencies of the United States, the U.S. territories and freely associated states, and Washington, D.C., as well as the more than 100,000 public health professionals these agencies employ. ASTHO members, the chief health officials of these jurisdictions, are dedicated to formulating and influencing sound public health policy and to ensuring excellence in public health practice.