Today, the House passed the Fiscal Year 2021 (FY2021) Labor-HHS-Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (H.R. 7614) as part of a package of FY2021 appropriations bills (H.R. 7617).

Aligning for Health is excited to share that the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations Report includes language incorporating the Social Determinants Accelerator Act (H.R. 4004) (See here for more information about the bill.)

The Report would provide $10 million in funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to award grants to states to develop Social Determinants Accelerator Plans. It would also instruct the Secretary of HHS to convene a council to oversee the grants and to draft and release a report on federal cross-agency opportunities to address SDH.

We look forward to continuing to work with both the House and Senate sponsors of the Social Determinants Accelerator Act to identify additional legislative pathways to advance the bill over the coming months.

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On Sunday July 12, the House Appropriations Committee released the report for the FY2021 Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill legislation.  The report includes language incorporating parts of the Social Determinants Accelerator Act (SDAA),  providing $10M to CDC to award grants to states to develop Social Determinants Accelerator Plans. It would also instruct the Secretary of HHS to convene a council to oversee the grants and to draft and release a report on federal cross-agency opportunities to address SDH.

On Monday July 13, the legislation was passed out of the Labor-HHS Appropriations Committee and now heads to the House floor for final passage.

“As COVID-19 has shown, social factors play a significant role in our health outcomes. The Social Determinants of Health Pilot Program will provide states with needed funding to develop cross-cutting approaches to address health and social needs, while driving important cross-agency coordination. We are excited to see this program advance and applaud the Committee for including this as part of the fiscal year 2021 appropriations report,” Krista Drobac, Co-Chair Aligning for Health said.

Featured below is the report language related to SDAA and social determinants and lead sponsor Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL)’s remarks from the July 13th Appropriations hearing.

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