Both the House and the Senate Appropriations Committees have approved their Labor, Health, and Human Services (LHHS) bills for FY 2016. The House LHHS bill contains the full Health Center Program request for FY 2016: a discretionary funding level of $1.5 billion, combined with the $3.6 billion made available in H.R. 2, for a total of $5.1 billion. The Senate LHHS bill proposes utilizing a portion of the remaining unspent FY 2015 dollars to fund increases to the program in subsequent years, providing a total of $5.2 billion for the Health Centers in FY 2016 ($1.5 billion in discretionary funding and $3.7 billion in mandatory funding -- a $100 million increase).
While this is good news, it is important to realize that neither of these proposals is final and the appropriations process is far from over. Click here for more information, including details about the contents of each bill.
