Next Network Call: Tuesday, November 8, 2011 11:00 am-12:30 pm CST
Agenda for Call:
Welcome/Introductions
Updates from DC meetings
HC One 2012 Summit
Site Updates
Voter Registration
Adjourn
Next Call: Tuesday February 14, 2012 from 11:00am - 12:30 pm CST
Handouts and other information:
President Obama recognizes Promotores and CHW's
Congress Moves Forward On FY2012 Spending Bills
House and Senate Appropriators are continuing their work to develop a federal spending bill for FY2012. The government is currently operating under a Continuing Resolution (CR) that is set to expire on November 18, 2011. Rather than passing individual appropriations bills through the House and Senate, or combining all appropriations bills into one omnibus bill, appropriators are combining select bills into smaller “minibus” appropriations bills. Appropriators are currently working to merge House and Senate spending bills from the respective Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science and Transportation-HUD subcommittees. Included in this bill is a larger measure to provide funding for the federal government until mid-December when a year-long plan may have been negotiated. The second of these packages, which may move forward in the Senate in coming days, includes the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill which provides funding for many global health programs.
The Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill, which provides funding for most domestic public health programs, is expected to be attached to the Defense appropriations bill and may be the last of the spending bills to move forward. The House and Senate versions of the Labor-HHS-Education bill currently vary widely in their funding levels for public health programs, and the House bill contains several policy riders that are unlikely to be accepted by the Senate, including rescinding all funding for the Affordable Care Act. None of the 12 appropriations bills for FY2012 have been signed into law by the President.
Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction Continues Work to Reduce Federal Spending Levels
The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction continues its work on developing a plan to reduce the federal deficit by at least $1.2 trillion as the November 23 deadline for submitting the plan to Congress draws nearer. Congress must then act on the plan by December 23, or sequestration (across the board spending cuts) will occur for federally funded discretionary programs. The Committee has held two hearings in recent weeks to determine the impact of cutting discretionary programs – including those funding public health programs - on the federal deficit. In his testimony at one of these hearings, Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf stated that cuts to discretionary spending alone will make it nearly impossible to reach the $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction. No specifics have been released as of yet, however Committee members have begun discussing proposals that include additional discretionary appropriations cuts on top of those already included in the Budget Control Act.
Minutes from the August 9, 2011 Network Call: "Funding Opportunities and Challlenges in a Treacherous Climate"
Advocacy Day - March 23, 2011
Here is an example of phone calls you can make from home:
Federal Funding Updates - November 2010
The Senate Appropriations Committee report for U.S. DHHS is available online at http://www.thomas.gov/home/approp/app11.html. The House Appropriations Committee has not released their U.S. DHHS report.
Senate Report
SPRANS FY11 Appropriation
Community-based Doula Program, administered through the Division of Healthy Start and Perinatal Services, Maternal & Child Health Bureau, HRSA
The Committee has included bill language identifying $93,999,263 for the Special Projects of Regional and National Significance [SPRANS] set-aside. Within that total, the Committee recommendation includes sufficient funding to continue the set-asides for oral health, epilepsy, sickle cell, doula programs, and fetal alcohol syndrome at no less than last year's level. [Note: FY10 funding is $1.5 million.]
Affordable Care Act FY11 Appropriation
Community Health Worker Demonstration
The Committee recommendation includes $30,000,000 in transfers from the Prevention and Public Health Fund for grants to hire community health workers, newly authorized in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act [PPACA]. The Committee encourages the CDC to prioritize applications that include increasing awareness of the new preventive benefits covered in the PPACA. [Note: These funds are administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion/National Activities on Chronic Disease, with a special focus on obesity as a prime risk factor.]
Home Visitation Initiative
These funds were previously appropriated by Congress with the passage of HR 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The U.S. DHHS allocated $88 million to states on July 21, 2010 through the Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program. The Affordable Care Act provides a total of $1.5 billion for these initiatives over 5 years.
The Healthy Start program, administered by the same MCHB division as the community-based doula program, has been given a funding decrease by the Senate Appropriations Committee. Their language is as follows:
The Committee provides $103,200,000 for the Healthy Start infant mortality initiative. [Note: down from FY10, $104,776,000 and below President’s FY11 request of $110,186,000].The Committee intends these funds to fully provide for continuations of previously awarded grants. The Committee is aware that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act [PPACA] includes $250,000,000 in fiscal year 2011 for home visitation programs to improve maternal and child birth outcomes, and that Healthy Start grantees are eligible to apply for this funding. In awarding the PPACA funds, the Committee encourages HRSA to give full and fair consideration to grantees currently and formerly funded in Healthy Start and in the home visitation initiative under the Administration for Children and Families.
Grants Notifier - email sign-up instructions
You can keep up with all of the federal information on health reform initiatives and funding. The following instructions outline how HC One has signed up for email tracking of federal grant opportunities for community-based doulas. You can do the same.
1. Under “For Applicants,” in blue box on far right side on grants.gov homepage, click on “Grant Email Alerts” link.
2. Click on “Notices Based on Advanced Criteria” link (fourth option in list).
3. Enter your email address
4. Under “Category of Funding Activity,” choose Health
5. Under “Funding Instrument Type,” choose grant
6. Under “Eligible Applicants” select the description that best applies to your organization, or choose “All eligibility types.”
7. Under “Agency” choose Department of Health and Human Services, or the agency that you are interested in tracking.
8. Next to the Agency list, there is a “Select Sub Agencies” button. If you want to track a specific sub agency, click this button and choose the sub agency you want. (HC One tracks Health Resources and Services Administration).
9. Click “Subscribe to Mailing List”
Healthcare.gov (Formerly healthreform.gov)
1. Click on the Email Updates link on the top right corner of the homepage.
2. Enter and confirm your email address.
3. Choose your email delivery preference.
4. Choose the type of updates you receive—HealthCare Notes and/or HealthCare.gov News Releases (HC one receives News Releases).
5. Choose the updates that best apply to you (HC One tracks updates that apply to Families with Children)
6. Click save.
Networking Opportunity
March 21-23, 2011 - Birth, Breastfeeding and Beyond: Sustaining Community-Based Practices, HC One National Conference
Next Network Call
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm CDT
Announcements
Have an announcement from your organization that you would like to share?
To submit your announcement for future Network communications, please contact us.
More Information
For more information on the National Community-Based Doula Network, please click here.
