Speak Out on Draft Bill That Would Gut Critical Training Programs

June 20, 2015 12:18 pm News Staff – The AAFP moved swiftly to rebuke House leaders for proposing drastic funding cuts in a draft appropriations bill (appropriations.house.gov) released this week by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies.

In a June 17 letter to Subcommittee Chair Tom Cole, R-Okla., and Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., AAFP Board Chair Reid Blackwelder, M.D., of Kingsport, Tenn., offered a litany of "serious concerns" with several provisions in the draft measure.

"In particular," Blackwelder wrote, "we are very troubled that the subcommittee bill does not invest adequately in physician workforce training grants or in the National Health Service Corps (NHSC). We also oppose the proposals to terminate the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and to defund the implementation of the (Patient Protection and) Affordable Care Act."