AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) Chief Public Policy Officer Karen Fisher, JD, issued the following statement regarding the announcement of an agreement between congressional leaders and the administration to raise discretionary spending limits for FY 2020 and FY 2021:
“Yesterday’s announcement of an agreement to ease the discretionary budget caps is a critical first step toward funding federal agencies and programs vital to patients across the country and to our nation’s health security.
The additional non-defense discretionary funding announced as part of the agreement paves the way for necessary investments in key national priorities, such as conducting medical research through the NIH, other science agencies, and the VA that provides hope to millions of Americans; building a culturally competent and responsive health professions workforce through the Health Resources and Services Administration Title VII programs; enhancing access to care for those impacted by the opioid epidemic; and improving medical care for our nation’s veterans.
We urge Congress and the president to move swiftly to enact this agreement and look forward to working with appropriators to secure sustained growth in funding for the full spectrum of federal health care, education, and science programs essential to the health of our nation.”
The Association of American Medical Colleges is a not-for-profit association dedicated to transforming health care through innovative medical education, cutting-edge patient care, and groundbreaking medical research. Its members are all 154 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 51 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and more than 80 academic societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC serves the leaders of America’s medical schools and teaching hospitals and their more than 173,000 full-time faculty members, 89,000 medical students, 129,000 resident physicians, and more than 60,000 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the biomedical sciences.