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The U.S. Senate Appropriations approved legislation that would restore funding for early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) and allocate $454.4 million in fiscal year (FY) 2006 federal funding for allied health professions education and would protect almost all of the student aid programs that President Bush had recommended cutting as part of its version of the Labor-HHS-Education appropriation bill.
The U.S. Senate provided $9.8 million for early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) programs within the Maternal Child Bureau (MCH) of the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) for fiscal year 2006. Earlier, the House approved $10 million in continued funding for EHDI. Funding for EHDI programs through the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is expected to continue at similar levels next year. ASHA coordinated advocacy efforts to help restore these funds including a joint letter of support from 33 organizations that can be found at ASHA's Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Action Center.
In response to concerns raised by ASHA and other organizations, the Senate committee vote reverses action taken by House appropriators in June to eliminate all but $47 million for education programs under Title VII of the Public Health Services Act. However, the appropriations bill still faces debate in the full Senate and negotiations in a House-Senate conference committee this fall before the funding level is finalized.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) spending would increase to $29.4 billion, $905 million more than the Bush administration proposed and $1.05 billion more than NIH is receiving this year. For more information, please contact Neil Snyder, ASHA's Director of Federal Advocacy, via e-mail at nsnyder@asha.org or by phone at 800-498-2071, ext. 4257.
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