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Advocacy Preparedness Act (PAHPA), which Congress passed on June 24, 2019,
including recommended language to authorize loan repayments.

Throughout the past two years, we joined like-minded partner
As we reflect on our past two years of advocacy work in the middle of
organizations in advocating for myriad public health issues such as
a pandemic, it is ever more apparent that our voices in Washington
antimicrobial resistance, food safety and advanced molecular detection,
are essential to communicate the role that epidemiologists play in
tuberculosis, environmental health, behavioral health, occupational
preventing, preparing for, and responding to public health emergencies.
health, injury and violence prevention, chronic disease, and more,
COVID-19 has exposed deadly gaps in our public health system and we
better, faster data.
have worked tirelessly to respond. As we continue to combat a pandemic
that our system was not prepared for, we recognize it won’t be the last
In the end, our efforts were largely successful. Building on the increase
public health threat to face our country. We know our voices must be
provided to CDC in the previous fiscal year, Congress provided CDC a
a constant, and are needed—maybe even more so—outside of public
funding increase of $636 million in fiscal year 2020 that translated into
health emergencies to advocate for a better, more robust public health
increases for CSTE priorities across the board, including ELC grants. For
infrastructure. CSTE provides this voice for you in the nation’s capital,
the first time, with the help of Data: Elemental to Health, $50 million
advocating for funding and policies that support your work.
was provided for the Data Modernization Initiative (DMI) to improve
public health data systems at CDC and state, territorial, local, and tribal
Even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, CSTE was busy in
health departments. The bill increased the infectious disease rapid
Washington with the launch of the Data: Elemental to Health campaign
response fund by $35 million, and for the first time in 20 years, $12.5
in 2018. Together, with partners APHL, National Association for Public
million was provided to support firearm injury and mortality prevention
Health Statistics and Information Systems (NAPHSIS), and Healthcare
research. We built on that success as Congress worked to provide relief
Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), we embarked
from COVID-19, securing an additional $500 million for the DMI in the
on an important journey to secure $1 billion over 10 years to modernize
Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.
data infrastructure at CDC. Through an annual appropriations request of
$100 million, we aim to build a foundation for data modernization that
can withstand the test of time and provide access for public health to
data in real time. The campaign achieved its first victory, securing initial
foundational funding of $50 million in fiscal year 2020.
In addition to the campaign, CSTE continued our annual advocacy
priorities for the CDC and within it, Epidemiology and Laboratory
Capacity (ELC) grants, the public health workforce, and public health
informatics. In 2019, we worked closely with key policymakers
on language in the reauthorization of Pandemic and All-Hazards

2019 Hill Visit in Washington, DC

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