Home

Members

Working Group

Testimony

Correspondence

Events

Photo Galleries

Funding by State

Correspondence

Letter to the Full Senate

June 1, 2000

The Honorable Arlen Specter

Chairman

Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education,

and Related Agencies

Committee on Appropriations

186 Dirksen Senate Office Building

United States Senate

Washington, DC 20510

Dear Chairman Specter:

The undersigned members of the Health Professions and Nursing Education Coalition (HPNEC) urge you to support increased funding for the health professions programs authorized under Titles VII and VIII of the Public Health Service Act. With a rapidly changing health care delivery environment, there is an ever-increasing need for the well-trained, diverse supply of health care providers educated through these programs.

We are deeply concerned with the health professions budget approved by your subcommittee and passed by the full appropriations committee. The proposed budget allots only $230 million for all health professions programs. Assuming $80 million is directed towards children's hospitals graduate medical education, $150 million remains, a 50 percent cut from FY 2000. This decrease would likely necessitate the termination of a number of critical programs that serve the needs of underserved populations.

The House subcommittee has again this year provided an increase to health professions programs, recognizing them as the link between the excellent research being performed in this country and the delivery of these health care advances to patients. We urge you and your colleagues to match the House committee-passed number of $410 million, so that these programs can continue to fulfill their mission of providing national leadership to assure the health professions workforce meets the health care needs of the public.

Thank you for your continued efforts to improve health care in this country. The health professions and nursing education programs in consort with the other health and human services programs, for which you have generously boosted funding, are a necessary investment for protecting the health of all Americans.

Sincerely,

HPNEC