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Dear Chair Aderholt, Chair Baldwin, Ranking Member DeLauro, and Ranking Member Capito,
As Friends of NCHS, we write to thank you for the subcommittee’s support for the National Center for Health Statistics in recent years. Through its data collection and analysis, NCHS provides enormous value to researchers and policymakers at all levels of government. To that end, the undersigned organizations respectfully request an appropriation of $220 million for NCHS in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. This increased funding will strengthen the agency’s ability to provide unbiased, timely health data to policymakers and reinforce the Center’s role as the world’s gold-standard producer of health statistics.
The enclosed Friends of NCHS FY25 priorities document details specific areas in which additional investment will help NCHS enhance its work. The U.S. emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic with a renewed understanding that timely, frequent, and granular data on America’s health and health care are essential to guide the public policy decisions that protect and improve our nation’s health. With additional funding, NCHS will be able to modernize and diversify its data collection efforts and more quickly provide meaningful information to policymakers, public health officials, providers, patients, and scientists who rely on NCHS data. NCHS could also better support the work of coroners and medical examiners whose death certificates are fundamental to the NCHS Vital Statistics System, as explained in this document, Saving Lives through Better Understanding of Deaths.
The Friends of NCHS greatly appreciates the House and Senate Subcommittees’ long-standing support of NCHS and we look forward to continuing to work with you. Again, we respectfully request an appropriation of $220 million for NCHS in FY 2025. Thank you for supporting this essential agency and its role in monitoring the health of our nation. If you have questions or wish to discuss this issue, please reach out to Steve Pierson, Director of Science Policy at the American Statistical Association and Chair of the Friends of NCHS at [email protected].
Academic Pediatric Association
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
AcademyHealth
Advocates for Better Children's Diets
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Anthropological Association
American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research
American Association of Colleges of Nursing
American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy
American Association on Health and Disability
American College of Clinical Pharmacy
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
American Educational Research Association
American Heart Association
American Pediatric Society
American Physical Therapy Association
American Psychological Association Services
American Public Health Association
American Society for Clinical Pathology
American Society for Nutrition
American Society for Reproductive Medicine
American Society on Aging
American Sociological Association
American Statistical Association
Association for Diagnostics and Laboratory Medicine
Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology
Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs
Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs
Association of Population Centers Association of Public Data Users
Association of Public Health Laboratories
Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
Consortium of Forensic Science Organizations
Consortium of Social Science Associations
Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics
Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research (FSR)
Healthy Teen Network
ICPSR, the data consortium
International Association of Coroners and Medical Examiners (IACME)
Lakeshore Foundation
March of Dimes
Naphsis
National Association of Medical Examiners
National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners
National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association
National League for Nursing
National Safety Council
Pediatric Policy Council
Population Association of America
Power to Decide
Prevent Blindness
RTI International
Safe States Alliance
Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine
Society for Pediatric Research
Society for Women's Health Research
Well-Being and Equity (WE) in the World Institute
Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance USA