Advocacy

APHL President Susan Neill, PhD, MBA, and Executive Director Scott Becker, MS, met with FDA Deputy Commissioner Mike Taylor on May 7 as part of the FDA Council of Presidents’ “Meet and Greet.” The meeting provided an opportunity to discuss the FDA’s integrated food safety initiative. Neill urged the FDA to accept state-level laboratory data and noted that APHL would work with the agency on food laboratory accreditation. Neill also encouraged improvements to the FERN program, noting that it often appears that there are two FERN networks, one run by FDA and one run by USDA.. Becker encouraged more information dissemination through APHL and also thanked Jeff Farrar, DVM, PhD, MPH, and others at FDA for considering APHL’s proposal to function as a “home” for food safety laboratories.

April: APHL Urges Greater Funding for Climate Change and Health Issues

APHL, along with other public health, environmental and science organizations, urged the US Senate in a letter to Senators Kerry, Lieberman, and Graham to retain the important health provisions and the funding allocation allowances to the Climate Change Protection and Promotion Fund.  These provisions and allowances were included in the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act and the House-passed American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.

February: APHL Joins With Over 175 Public Health Organizations to Support Health Reform

More than 175 organizations, including APHL, issued a letter of support on February 4, 2010, to the President, Senate and House of Representatives in strong support of comprehensive health reform efforts. The letter emphasized the need to modernize and increase funding for disease prevention, wellness and public health in the United States.

2009 Advocacy

October: Letter to Ranking Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Members Senators Lieberman and Collins Protesting Duplicative Biosafety Regulations

"If S. 1649 became law, the increased regulatory and paperwork burden on the already overwhelmed and understaffed governmental public health laboratories could lead to results that are diametrically the opposite of its intentions: a weakening of biosecurity, as laboratory professionals attempt to manage this burden instead of focusing their efforts on maintaining and improving biosecurity and biosafety. APHL urges you to omit Title I from the bill."

September: Letter to Ranking Members of Senate Finance and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committees Urging the Inclusion of of HELP Measures in Final Finance Committee Bill

"The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) and the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), together with the undersigned public health organizations, urges you to ensure that all of Title III and Title IV of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) health care reform measure be incorporated into the final, merged legislation with the Senate Finance Committee bill. Title III addresses the Health of the American People through prevention and wellness, and Title IV is designed to enhance the nation’s health care workforce."

August: APHL and Partners Support Congressional Legislation to Establish a National Public Health Tracking Network

"Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Rules Committee Chair Louise Slaughter of New York re-introduced the Coordinated Environmental Public Health Network Act this week. This legislation would establish a national public health tracking network to allow for the detection and identification of possible connections between adverse health effects and environmental hazards. It would also increase funding for biomonitoring work at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which tracks exposure levels to common chemicals… This legislation is supported by numerous health and environmental groups, including Trust for America’s Health, the Breast Cancer Fund, American Public Health Association, the Association of Public Health Laboratories and National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems."

July: Letter to House Committee on Energy and Commerce from APHL Executive Director Supports America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009

"On behalf of the nation’s public health laboratories, I am writing to express our strong support for the public health workforce development and support for core public health infrastructure provisions of the America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. Investing in state and local public health laboratories is critical to the health and wellness of the American people both in times of outbreaks of infectious diseases and in advancing prevention...."

February: Laid Off Public Health Workers Excluded from Senate Stimulus, Governmental Health Laboratories Slammed by Recession

"The Senate compromise version of H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, provides no relief to the thousands of state and local government public health workers laid off because of the economic downturn – including those who work in laboratories," said Scott Becker, Executive Director of the Association of Public Health Laboratories. "Unfortunately, the Senate has decided that these workers shouldn’t be included in the 4 million jobs that President Obama wants to save or create," said Becker. "We urge the conferees to retain the House language providing $3 billion for prevention and wellness...."

February: Collective Letter to Congressional Subcommittee on Labor/HHS Regarding Public Health Funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

"Our over 160 organizations express our gratitude and support for the robust public health provisions included in the House-passed version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and our extreme disappointment over the $5.8 billion in prevention and wellness funding stripped from the Senate bill. We urge you to maintain the House-passed level of $3 billion for prevention and wellness in the final enacted version of the bill...."

January: Letter to Obama's Transition Team

"Maintaining and improving the public health laboratory workforce at governmental laboratories that conduct testing of public health significance is the top issue for the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL). The economic decline has reduced funding levels for state and local governments, and it is causing them to reduce the amount of funding they direct to public health and the laboratories that support it...."

2008 Advocacy

December: ABB and APHL To Offer Board Certification in Public Health Microbiology

To address the chronic shortage of laboratory scientists certified to direct a high complexity public health laboratory, the American Board of Bioanalysis (ABB) and APHL have agreed to offer a board certification in public health microbiology beginning in the fall of 2009.  The certification will afford doctoral-level scientists in public health laboratories a new means to qualify for certification under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act (CLIA), which establishes the qualifications for non-physician laboratory directors in medical and public health laboratories that conduct high complexity testing on human specimens.

November: APHL Seeks CLIA Certification for All CDC Labs

Approximately two years ago APHL began discussions with CDC leaders concerning the felt need by our members for CDC labs to embrace a quality management system— and to move towards CLIA certification for all CDC labs.  This letter outlines our position on this issue.

September: APHL Instrumental in Development of New Test for Rapid Detection of Influenza

“The partnership between CDC, APHL and participating state laboratories has strengthened our national capability to monitor and detect influenza viruses," said Rosemary Humes, senior advisor for scientific affairs, Association of Public Health Laboratories.

September: CSTE and APHL Applaud Senate and House Introduction of “National Integrated
Public Health Surveillance Systems and Reportable Conditions Act of 2008”

"This legislation is important because it addresses a significant gap in our public health preparedness efforts – the challenge of nationally reported diseases," stated Steven Hinrichs, MD, director of the Nebraska Public Health Laboratory and a member of the National Biosurveillance Advisory Subcommittee.

August: APHL Applauds Obama’s Introduction of S. 3358, Improving Food-borne Illness Surveillance and Response Act of 2008

“Passage of this legislation would greatly enhance the ability of all state and local laboratories to monitor and measure food-borne illnesses in the US population,” according to APHL President Frances Downes.

July: APHL Testifies at House Hearing on BioWatch Program

APHL’s president, Frances Pouch Downes, DrPH, testifed before the House Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology of the Homeland Security Committee on the operational difficulties associated with the BioWatch program.

April: President Signs Newborn Screening Act

Signature of the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act of 2007 represents a significant commitment to improving the health of children by assuring that testing will continue to occur with the greatest level of accuracy and that those children with life threatening and debilitating disorders will receive prompt and effective treatment.

2007 Advocacy

December: Senate Passes Newborn Screening Act

Late on the night of December 13, the U.S. Senate passed S. 1858, the Dodd-Hatch "Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act." This bill includes provisions that, for the first time, require annual funding for CDC's newborn screening quality assurance program and that direct the Secretary of HHS to produce a contingency plan for newborn screening operations -- both of which were recommended by APHL. APHL is deeply appreciative of the work of Senators Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT)in advancing this important legislation, and we look forward to working closely with Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) and Congressman Mike Simpson (R-ID) as they move their companion legislation, H.R. 1634, through the House of Representatives.

November: Report about Electronic Laboratory Reporting

As a result of a consensus-building meeting, APHL and ANSER Analytic Services, Inc. have published “Framework for Electronic Laboratory Reporting: Recommendations to Policymakers.” The report concludes that there is an urgent need to develop electronic communication from local and private laboratories to local, state and federal public health authorities, including the CDC.

October: Presidential Directive Establishes National Strategy for Preparedness

The White House issued a statement establishing a National Strategy for Public Health and Medical Preparedness. Under his strategy, the HHS Secretary would develop an operational national biosurveillance system with connections to international disease surveillance systems to provide early warning and ongoing characterization of disease outbreaks.

September: APHL Testifies on Pandemic Influenza

Pete Shult, PhD, director of the communicable diseases division, Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene, represented APHL to the House Homeland Security Committee, Threats Subcommittee. APHL was asked to provide a witness for a hearing on federal preparedness efforts for an influenza pandemic.

July: House Adopts Appropriations Bill

The House of Representatives passed the 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations bill on July 19.  The legislation includes $16 million to CDC for environmental health activities in order to better understand how the environment affects human health – a point that especially singled out for inclusion in the committee’s brief summary of the $154 billion bill.

July: APHL Supports Labor-HHS Bill

APHL signed a letter in support of FY 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Bill, which received strong bipartisan support when it was agreed to by the House Appropriations Committee Wednesday. APHL was joined in the letter by education, training, disability, public health, health and biomedical research, aging and child welfare organizations, elected officials and labor unions representing the full range of stakeholders in the programs of the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services and Labor. The bill provides a modest 4.8 percent overall increase for programs.

APHL joined 850 education, training, disability, public health, medical research, child welfare organizations and labor unions to support the FY 2008 Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, Education Appropriations bill that increases overall funding above the FY 2007 level for critically important programs.

June: APHL Supports Healthy Communities Act of 2007

On behalf of APHL and its member laboratories, APHL President William Becker, DO, MPH, wrote a letter of support to Senator Obama, applauding the provisions of S. 1068, The Healthy Communities Act of 2007. Passage of this legislation would greatly enhance our ability to measure and monitor levels of chemicals in the US population. It would particularly enhance our ability to assess exposures in at-risk subpopulations that have traditionally been neglected.

April: APHL Instrumental in Passage of Mutual Aid Bill

Peter Kyriacopoulos, APHL’s director of public policy, testified before the Maryland House Health and Government Operations Committee on February 13. He voiced APHL’s support for HB 344, which allows the state public health laboratory to enter into or renew a mutual aid agreement with a public health laboratory operated by another state. According to APHL's testimony, if this bill becomes law, “the direct benefits will occur when the continuity of public health testing operations is maintained because the Maryland laboratory receives additional personnel from another state.” According to the testimony of Dr. Jack DeBoy, Director of the Laboratories Administration, Maryland’s State Public Health Laboratory, “HB 334 is groundbreaking legislation and other states are watching with interest to see how this bill progresses as they prepare to submit similar bills in their own states.” A Department of Legislative Services fiscal summary concluded that “the bill would not create the need for expenditures above what currently would be required if a State public health laboratory needed emergency assistance or was asked by another state public health laboratory to provide emergency assistance.” The bill passed the House and Senate, where APHL submitted testimony to the Maryland Senate committee that held a hearing on the bill. The bill was signed by the Governor on April 10.

March: APHL Supports Campaign for CDC

APHL and 20 other public health organizations of the Campaign for Public Health met with members of Congress at a March 21 press conference and discussed increasing funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The core programs of the CDC would receive nearly $500 million less next year under President Bush's proposed federal budget than they got two years ago, according to an analysis by a nonprofit CDC advocacy group. Karl Moeller, executive director of the Campaign for Public Health, said funding of programs for which CDC is known — such as disease control, health information services, research and bioterrorism response — would be about $6 billion under the president's proposal. But folded into that amount is $158 million in emergency funding to prepare for a feared influenza pandemic, said Moeller. If the flu money is removed, next year's CDC budget for these activities would be about $5.8 billion compared to $6.3 billion approved by Congress three years ago.

March: APHL and CSTE Urge Support for Fellowship Programs

APHL has joined other organizations in signing a letter to Rep. David Obey (D-WI), Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations. The letter urges Rep. Obey to support significantly increasing funding for the CDC’s National Environmental Public Health Tracking Program and to enhance the Environmental Health Laboratory’s biomonitoring capacity. The funds would be used to expand the number of state and local health departments participating in the Tracking Program/Network and to enhance state public health laboratory biomonitoring capabilities.

February: APHL Applauds Introduction of Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act

APHL commends Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) for their introduction of legislation to provide increased parent and health care provider education, improve follow-up care and enable states to improve their newborn screening programs.