Analysis of President’s FY2019 budget request reveals several major changes

The John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Health Security recently on Wednesday a preliminary analysis of health security funding in President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal year 2019 (FY2019) budget, which highlighted several major budgetary and organizational changes.

Within the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Trump’s budget proposes a $60 million cut to Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases programs and a $20 million cut to CDC Preparedness and Response. The Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) Cooperative Agreement program budget would increase by $5 million from the estimated fiscal year 2018 (FY2018) Continuing Resolution (CR) level, and Influenza Planning would also increase slightly.

A major change proposed in the budget is moving the Strategic National Stockpile program from the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR) to the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR).

Moving the SNS to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) would contribute to a budget increase of over $575 million for the office. Most other ASPR program budgets were relatively unchanged from FY2018.

Pandemic influenza funding, which is split between ASPR and the Office of Global Affairs, would increase by approximately $50 million to a total of $250 million.

Substantial changes for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are the creation of the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) Office and the reorganization of DHS health-security related programs into CWMD including the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) and the Office of Health Affairs. The Science and Technology Directorate will transfer some of its functions to CWMD.

The proposed budget for CWMD for FY2019 is $429.3 million, which includes $209.3 million for Mission Support and Capability and Operations Support, $74.9 million for Procurement, Construction, and Improvements, $80.4 million for Research and Development and $64.7 million for federal assistance to federal, state, local, tribal and territorial partners.

Funding for the Global Health Security Agenda in the proposed budget includes $59 million designated GHSA funding from a $109 million budget in the Global Disease Detection line at CDC and $72.5 million in repurposed Ebola supplemental funds at US Agency for International Development (USAID). GHSA funds for CDC would be in addition to any unexpended Ebola supplemental funding at CDC, which expires in FY2019 for that agency.

The Center for Health Security plans to release a more comprehensive analysis in its Federal Funding for Health Security report, which it publishes annually in Health Security.