ICYMI: Senator Murray reintroduces Public Health Infrastructure Saves Lives Act as new report chronicles perils of underinvestment – MORE HERE
VIDEO: Senator Murray speaks about importance of public health infrastructure funding on Senate floor
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced $3,313,127 in federal grant funding for the Washington State Department of Health to strengthen public health infrastructure across Washington state. The money comes from the Public Health Infrastructure Grant Program Murray wrote into the American Rescue Plan—the program was based on provisions in Murray’s Public Health Infrastructure Saves Lives Act—and secured a boost in funding for as Chair of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee last year. The Public Health Infrastructure Grant Program is administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to track diseases, stop outbreaks, provide child and maternal health care, help ensure our food and water supply is safe, and monitor data in communities throughout the U.S. to help keep families healthy. Last year, Washington state received a $1,893,234 award through the program.
“We know that public health infrastructure saves lives—and the better funded and prepared our public health system is before a crisis hits, the more lives we can save,” said Senator Murray. “That’s why I established the Public Health Infrastructure Grant Program as part of the American Rescue Plan and why I have always fought to boost investments in public health infrastructure—because our public health system is truly our first line of defense against everything from combating the fentanyl crisis, to preparing for disease outbreaks, to preventing chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease. To me this is simple: every dollar we invest in public health saves us many more in the long run.”
Senator Murray has long been a champion of public health and has played a major role in securing federal investments to strengthen and expand the country’s public health infrastructure. As Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Senator Murray introduced the Public Health Infrastructure Saves Lives (PHISLA) Act in 2020, which would establish $4.5 billion in dedicated, annual funding for a grant program to build up and maintain the nation’s public health system across the board. Murray reintroduced the legislation in 2021 and secured the inclusion of provisions from the bill—including the creation of the Public Health Infrastructure Grant Program—in the American Rescue Plan Act that was signed into law in March 2021. Murray most recently reintroduced PHILSA this past June, and spoke on the Senate floor and held a press conference about the need for robust public health investments.
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