820: Legal Mapping Center, 2025 Legislative Outlook

SUMMER JOHNSON: 

This is the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition for Friday, January 10, 2025. I'm Summer Johnson. Now, today's news from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

MAGGIE DAVIS: 

So, we've heard from members that they really like to see that national snapshot of a policy issue, they like to be able to see what other jurisdictions are doing, kind of different aspects of an issue, like, 'How is a jurisdiction approaching a topic one way or another?'

JOHNSON: 

Over the next few weeks, we'll bring you an update on some of ASTHO's most popular stories and topics of 2024. Today, ASTHO's Maggie Davis dives into the Legal Mapping project, which ASTHO continues to improve.

DAVIS: 

One way, we've added two more overdose prevention maps. We covered issues around access and support for peer support services, and then also on certain legal aspects of overdose surveillance, and then we've also expanded our kind of legislative tracking maps through our Public Health Infrastructure Grant projects.

JOHNSON: 

Davis says her team will continue to improve the Legal Mapping Center as time goes on.

DAVIS: 

So, one of the things that we're hoping to build off of with the Legal Mapping Center is to be able to have that national snapshot and kind of COVID laws or policies to serve as a foundation for hopefully future legal epidemiology studies to say, not just, 'This is the state of the law at a certain point of time,' but, 'What was the effect of that law on population health?'

JOHNSON: 

You can find a link to ASTHO's Legal Mapping Center in the show notes.

Also on the ASTHO website, you can find the list of the most popular resources for public health professionals that we will be discussing right here on this newscast. Fentanyl, firearms, and measles are just some of the topics. You can learn more and view the original stories by clicking the link in the show notes.

On Capitol Hill, 2024 came to an interesting end. So what does 2025 have in store? We find out from ASTHO's Carolyn Mullen, in this week's View from Washington, D.C. report.

Happy Friday, Carolyn, Happy 2025.

CAROLYN MULLEN: 

Happy Friday.

JOHNSON: 

The end of 2024 was a little bit chaotic, but we were able to avoid a government shutdown. Give us the details on what happened.

MULLEN: 

So, the lead up was really chaotic. To remind our listeners, there was a bipartisan bill that was released. It was 1500 pages, but it included a lot of priorities for ASTHO that bipartisan legislation tanked at the 11th hour. Then following that, there was a mention of a deal, and then the deal fell apart, and then another deal, then another bill text, and it was really, really chaotic leading up into December 20. But finally, finally, Congress approved, in a bipartisan fashion, a short-term continuing resolution funding the federal government through March 14 and punting on a number of other public health programs, extending community health centers, the National Service Corps through March 31 so unfortunately, it did not reauthorize PAHPA, which was a real bummer for us and for our members.

JOHNSON: 

Tell us about PAHPA and how it impacts preparedness programs.

MULLEN: 

So, PAHPA is a Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, and we've been working over the last two years to reauthorize critical programs in that bill, such as ASPR'S Hospital Preparedness Program and the CDC Public Health Emergency [Preparedness] program, and unfortunately, they weren't reauthorized. I want to be clear to our members that appropriators can provide funding for unauthorized programs. They've done it historically throughout many, many years. However, what is concerning to me is Elon Musk specifically has said that any unauthorized programs will potentially be on the chopping block for cuts, and that makes these programs a little bit more vulnerable than they are historically. So, we'll have to wait and see what happens in the next couple of months, but please know that ASTHO will be advocating for the reauthorization of these critical programs.

JOHNSON: 

The government has funding through March 14. What happens then?

MULLEN: 

The lead-up to March 14 is going to be extremely confusing and chaotic. Congress needs to finish funding the federal government for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2025 which is what we're in right now, and they're going to start work on Fiscal Year 2026. We expect President Trump to release a budget proposal that will probably have significant proposed cuts for a lot of public health programs, but that's just a proposal. Congress doesn't have to approve or reject it. But that's 2026, they're going to be finishing up 2025. There'll be a lot of conversations in the press about both happening at the same time. So, for state health officials, I really encourage you to reach out to the ASTHO Government Affairs team. It is our job to weed through all of this confusion and help them better understand what's important and what isn't. And just to rest assured, we will be monitoring all these developments in the next couple weeks and months to come, and hopefully we end up with a really good product at the end of March, and then we can start anew with Fiscal Year 2026.

JOHNSON: 

Thank you, Carolyn, we appreciate all the work you and your team do at ASTHO.

MULLEN: 

Thanks so much.

JOHNSON: 

That'll do it for today. We're back Monday morning with more ASTHO news and information. I'm Summer Johnson. You're listening to the award-winning Public Health Review Morning Edition. Have a great weekend.