In the early hours of the morning today, Feb. 9, Congress passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government funded through Mar. 23. Importantly, this deal also included a two-year agreement to raise budget caps, which means Congress can finally get to work on a final appropriations package for FY18 and avoid sequestration.

We are also thrilled to share that this CR included a five-year extension for the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program (MIECHV) at current funding levels; extends the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for an additional four years (in addition to the recently passed six-year extension); and creates two-year extensions for other critical health programs such as community health centers, the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP), and Family to Family Information Centers. In addition, the CR package includes $90 billion in further disaster aid for recent hurricanes and wildfires and $6 billion to address the opioid epidemic.

Thank you to everyone who mobilized in the past few days to ensure that MIECHV was not left out of this deal!

Unfortunately, the bill enacts some cuts to the Prevention and Public Health Fund to offset other costs, though these cuts are smaller than originally proposed by the House of Representatives earlier this week. We will continue working with our partners in the public health advocacy community to protect the Prevention and Public Health Fund from further cuts in the future and to advocate that increased funds now available due to raised budget caps be used to prevent cuts to the important programs currently funded by the Prevention and Public Health Fund.

AMCHP will keep you posted in the next few weeks as Congress assembles a final deal on FY18 appropriations.  If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact Amy Haddad ahaddad@amchp.org or Alyson Northrup anorthrup@amchp.org.