Fund is nation’s largest investment in prevention, funding programs for childhood immunizations, smoking cessation, and lead poisoning prevention
 

Washington (November 2, 2017) – Today, Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) led 21 of his colleagues in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) calling on them to avoid using the Prevention and Public Health Fund (PPHF) to offset the costs of reauthorizing important bipartisan health initiatives. The PPHF, created as part of the Affordable Care Act, represents the nation’s largest investment in prevention and is used to fund critical public health programs in every state. In Massachusetts, the PPHF directly funds $17 million worth of preventive care, immunizations, and life-saving screenings. The U.S. House of Representatives has proposed cutting 75 percent of the Prevention and Public Health Fund as part of the CHAMPIONING Healthy Kids Act expected to be voted on in the House this week.
 
“Using the PPHF as a piggy bank, even for important health programs, will result in major cuts to state, local, tribal, and territorial health departments, as well as other grantees working at the local level,” write the Senators in their letter to Senate leadership. “Issuing cuts to the PPHF to fund community health care programs is a clear example of robbing Peter to pay Paul and will have disastrous effects for the health of children and working families. It will also only further exacerbate the long-term problem of mounting health care spending.”
 
A copy of the letter can be found HERE.
 
Other senators signing the letter include Senators Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Angus King (I-Maine), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), and Bob Casey (D-Penn.).
 

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