Last week, the President’s released his FY2014 Budget Proposal. Under the proposed budget, the Health Centers Program would receive a total programmatic level of $3.8 billion. This $700 million increase above FY2013 is comprised of funds previously appropriated through the Affordable Care Act and could enable Health Centers to expand access to care to more than 5 million new patients if fully utilized. You can view the NACHC statement on the President’s Budget Proposal here.

The Senate FY2014 Health Center support letter is now open for signatures. The bi-partisan letter led by Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Roger Wicker (R-MS) will be circulating until Wednesday, April 24^th. Information on the Senate letter will be posted here as soon as it is available. Senators can also submit their individual funding priorities to the Appropriations Committee on what is known as their wish list until Friday, April 26^th. We would ask all Health Center Advocates to reach out to their Senator to ask them to support health centers by signing on to the Stabenow-Wicker letter and by including health center funding on their individual wish list.

As a reminder, the bi-partisan Bilirakis-Pallone FY14 Health Center funding support letter is still open for signatures in the House until Wednesday. Health Center Advocates have 2 days to follow up with their Representatives to sign on to the Bilirakis-Pallone letter. Advocates can see a list of current cosigners here.  As a reminder, Members have until April 22^nd to submit individual programmatic request in support of the Health Center Program.