FY 2024 allocation for the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education and Related Agencies should be increased to meet vital needs

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BCHC signed onto a letter led by the Coalition for Health Funding to support the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education and Related Agencies appropriations bill. Increasing the FY 2024 allocation for the Labor, HHS, Education Subcommittee to level that ensures robust and sustained investments so that the programs can meet vital needs. Non-defense discretionary (NDD) funding also should not be cut or capped.

While Congress enacted COVID-19 emergency funding to address urgent needs caused by the pandemic on a short-term basis, this pandemic supplemental funding does not replace the need for ongoing increases to base appropriations for services to fulfill the goals of the bill’s programs. We need sustained annual increases across the Labor-HHS-Education programs to address long-standing needs that existed before the pandemic, and these increases cannot come at the expense of other programs within the bill or other NDD programs. The programs in the Labor, HHS, Education bill strengthen the nation by improving Americans’ lives and meeting basic needs for a broad range of constituencies. The effects of chronic underfunding have impacted programs that support education, public health, health research, job training, and social services.

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