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Health and Human Services (HHS) Appropriations

April 29, 2024

Every Year, the LDA provides written input to the U.S. House of Representatives Lyme Disease Caucus for its consideration in formulating its requests to the Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies, House Committee on Appropriations. Following are a few examples from FY2023 and FY2024 appropriations, where LDA submitted language that was used by the Lyme Caucus and was included in House report language for FY2023 and Explanatory Materials for FY2024.

FY2023: The Committee encourages NINDS to evaluate how it may contribute to improvements in in tools to manage Lyme Disease; the Committee asks NIH to consider the value of establishing a work group on long-term, not well understood outcomes for different diseases with similar long-term sequelae; the Committee encourages

NIH to intensify research on adverse outcomes related to Lyme disease during pregnancy (Bruce Fries submitted language to LDA regarding pregnancy outcomes); to increase provider awareness of Lyme and TBD in differential diagnoses and practice shared decision making; make patients and health care providers aware of the existence of two sets of differing Lyme Disease Clinical Guidelines. The LDA also requested authorized funding, per the Kay Hagan Tick Act, for CDC’s Regional Centers of Excellence and the grant program that allows CDC to enter into cooperative agreements with State and tribal health departments for purposes of improving data collection and analysis … .

FY2024: The Committee encourages NIH to establish a Special Emphasis Panel (SEP) for Lyme and other TBD, similar to the SEP established for Myalgic Ensephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS); the Committee is aware that potentially valuable tools, methods, and approaches for preventing tickborne diseases have not been evaluated for a lack of resources, the Committee appropriates funding to CDC training and evaluation Centers to evaluate the most promising of those tools, methods, and approaches preventing tickborne diseases and to provide advanced training for public health entomologists on their use; the infectious etiology of chronic diseases and syndromes, including infections from Borrelia burgdorferi, Bartonella henselae, …have been known or suspected for several decades, but research … has been severely neglected … research in treating severe mental health and psychological symptoms of chronic diseases and disabilities. The LDA also requested an increase in funding for VBD activities at CDC by $2 million, and a sustained budget of $5 million for the LymeX Innovation Accelerator (LymeX).