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- Senate Considers Passage of Build Back Better Act; CAP Tracking Health Priorities
While Congress successfully passed several year-end priorities on December 9, the CAP is still engaging lawmakers on health care provisions in the Build Back Better bill. The Build Back Better legislation aims to improve patient’s lives nationwide by expanding access to health insurance and enact several other priorities of the Biden Administration.
The Build Back Better Act previously passed the House of Representatives in November on a party-line vote. Senate Democratic leaders are negotiating within their own caucus to reach an agreement on a final bill. Over the past few days, key Senate committees released separate pieces of the legislation. The CAP is reviewing the legislative language as it is released.
The CAP has endorsed several provisions in the bill. These items include:
- $7 billion to support public health infrastructure activities
- $2 billion in funding for grants for modernizing projects to increase capacity and update hospitals and other medical facilities
- $5 billion for critical manufacturing supply chain resilience
- $1.4 billion for renovation, expansion, modernization of state and local public health lab infrastructure, including money for Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) laboratories
- $1.3 billion to prepare and respond to public health emergencies, including shoring up the strategic national stockpile supply chains, global and domestic vaccine manufacturing, biosecurity, and therapeutics
- Funding for social determinants of maternal health
- Expanded health coverage for low-income populations