ASH President Commends Congress for Reaching Federal Spending Deal

(WASHINGTON, DC, Dec. 18, 2019) – On Monday, bipartisan leaders in the House and Senate reached an agreement on a $1.3 trillion federal spending deal for fiscal year 2020. The legislation package – which Congress is expected to pass and then submit to President Trump for signature this week – includes increased funding for vital public health agencies. The bill includes a total of $94.9 billion for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), an increase of $4.4 billion compared to 2019, and it provides $8 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and $41.7 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The American Society of Hematology (ASH) 2020 President Stephanie Lee, MD, of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, commented on the news:

“We applaud Congress for coming together to continue support for and investment in public health. The CDC and NIH play critical roles in supporting much of the world’s hematology-related biomedical research, the results of which we just saw showcased at our annual meeting. NIH’s research funding has contributed to major medical developments, from curative gene therapies to more effective and less toxic cancer treatments. CDC’s information collection and dissemination efforts help target resources where they are needed toward better care for sick and vulnerable Americans.

We are pleased to see that both agencies will receive additional funding next year compared to 2019. The increased funds will support additional investigator-initiated research grants, as well as many essential programs, including NIH’s All of Us precision medicine research initiative, NIH’s Cancer Moonshot research initiative, and CDC’s multi-year effort to modernize its public health data surveillance and analytics.

We thank Congress for its strong bipartisan support for biomedical research, and we call on the President of the United States to sign this legislation offering a long-term investment in the health of American families and communities.”

The American Society of Hematology (ASH) (www.hematology.org) is the world’s largest professional society of hematologists dedicated to furthering the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disorders affecting the blood. For more than 60 years, the Society has led the development of hematology as a discipline by promoting research, patient care, education, training, and advocacy in hematology. ASH publishes Blood (www.bloodjournal.org), the most cited peer-reviewed publication in the field, and Blood Advances (www.bloodadvances.org), an online, peer-reviewed open-access journal.

Contact:
Leah Enser, American Society of Hematology
lenser@hematology.org; 202-552-4927