APA Services joined 288 national, state, and local medical, public health, and research organizations requesting Congress provide $35 million in funding for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and $25 million in funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in fiscal year (FY) 2023. The funding would allow the agencies to conduct public health research into firearm morbidity and mortality prevention.
In June, the House Appropriations Committee began the process to fulfill the groups’ request by providing $60 million in funding for gun violence prevention research, more than doubling the funding level provided in FY 2022 in its version of the FY 2023 funding bill. The next step is consideration on the House floor by the full House of Representatives. The Senate appropriations committee has yet to act on its version of the bill.
The letter's signatories thanked Congress for the continued support of this research in FY 2022, the third consecutive year of providing $12.5 million each to CDC and NIH. CDC's portfolio includes support for investigator-initiated research designed to improve the scientific understanding of firearm-related violence and rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of prevention strategies. NIH's research, consistent with a public health approach, includes investigator-initiated research to improve the understanding of the determinants of firearm injury, the identification of those at risk, the development and evaluation of innovative interventions, and the development of approaches to improve the implementation of existing, evidence-based interventions. The letter also pointed out that the agencies currently receive many more proposals than they can fund.
The organizations further encouraged Congress to explore opportunities for building out and supporting gun violence prevention research at all other federal agencies supporting this research "to ensure that federally funded research can explore the full scope of this public health issue."
For more information, contact: Angela L. Sharpe.