Presidential Document2024-07195
National Public Health Week, 2024
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
April 3, 2024
Signed
March 29, 2024
Issuing agencies
Executive Office of the President
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 65 (Wednesday, April 3, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 65 (Wednesday, April 3, 2024)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 22895-22897]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-07195]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 89 , No. 65 / Wednesday, April 3, 2024 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 22895]]
Proclamation 10722 of March 29, 2024
National Public Health Week, 2024
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
During National Public Health Week, we celebrate the
life-saving care of public health professionals who
work tirelessly to promote our country's health,
safety, and well-being. We recognize that the healthier
Americans are as individuals, the stronger we are as a
Nation.
In the last few years, we have made enormous progress
in recovering from the pandemic, vaccinating 230
million Americans and getting kids back in school. None
of that would have been possible without the courage
and dedication of millions of first responders and
social workers, doctors and nurses, and scientists and
researchers. Public health professionals have always
played an essential role in the life of our Nation--
working to boost immunizations, improve safety
standards for food and transportation, protect clean
air and water, and more. We owe them for carrying us
through tough times and making our country healthier
and more prosperous long-term. We have to help make
their jobs easier by investing in the health of the
American people.
I have long said that health care should be a right in
this country, not a privilege. That is why my
Administration expanded coverage through the Affordable
Care Act. Today, more Americans have health care
coverage than under any other President, and millions
of families are saving an average of $800 per year on
insurance premiums. We have also invested $7.6 billion
in community health centers so people in rural and
underserved areas can get care close to home. After
years of trying, we have succeeded in reducing
prescription drug costs--for example, capping insulin
at $35 per month for seniors on Medicare, down from as
much as $400, and finally getting Medicare the
authority to negotiate lower drug prices, as the
Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans
Affairs have long done. Starting next year, no senior
on Medicare will have to pay more than $2,000 per year
in total out-of-pocket drug costs--not even for
expensive cancer medications that cost many times more.
At the same time, we are funding scientific research
that will help us make quantum leaps forward in the
prevention, detection, and treatment of deadly
diseases. I established the Advanced Research Projects
Agency for Health, securing $2.5 billion in bipartisan
funding for scientists, innovators, and public health
professionals making these advances. Further, the First
Lady and I reignited the Cancer Moonshot, setting a
bold goal to cut the cancer death rate by at least 50
percent over the next 25 years and boost support for
people impacted by cancer. We also launched the first-
ever White House Initiative on Women's Health Research
to close research gaps and maximize our ability to
prevent, diagnose, and treat health conditions in
women, like cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's
disease, and endometriosis.
I am doing all I can to protect women's fundamental
freedom to make their own health care decisions. In the
wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the
constitutional right to choose, tens of millions of
Americans are living under extreme State abortion bans
that put women's health and lives at risk and threaten
doctors with jail time for providing the health
[[Page 22896]]
care their patients need. In response, my
Administration has taken steps to safeguard access to
emergency medical care, support the ability to travel
for reproductive health care, and strengthen privacy
protections for patients and health care providers. I
will keep pressing the Congress to restore the
protections of Roe v. Wade into Federal law. It is the
only way to ensure reproductive freedom for women in
every State. At the same time, Vice President Harris is
leading the effort to combat the maternal health crisis
that is gripping our country, which has been especially
devastating to Black and Native women and women in
rural communities, where maternal mortality rates are
unconscionably high.
We are also making historic investments in improving
mental health by putting more counselors in schools and
pushing insurers to cover mental health care at the
same level as any other care.
We are working hard to ensure that substance use
disorder is treated like any other disease by funding
the expansion of prevention, harm reduction, treatment,
and recovery support services. My Administration
removed decades--long administrative barriers to
treatment of opioid use disorder and expanded access to
opioid overdose reversal medications like naloxone, and
we are continuing to advance efforts to address the
overdose epidemic and save lives. We are working to end
the epidemic of gun violence that has shattered far too
many American lives. Two summers ago, I signed the most
significant gun safety law in nearly 30 years, funding
States' implementation of red flag laws and enhancing
background checks for gun buyers under 21. I launched
the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence
Prevention. I was also proud to sign the reauthorized
Violence Against Women Act, building on the law that I
first wrote years ago to expand protections and
resources for today's domestic violence survivors.
Meanwhile, my Administration is making the largest
investment ever in fighting the public health crises
caused by climate change. We are working to make
communities more resilient to extreme weather and
ensuring that 40 percent of our clean energy
investments flow to the disadvantaged areas that have
borne the brunt of toxic pollution for too long.
Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we are also
replacing every poisonous lead pipe in the country so
anyone in America can turn on the faucet and drink
clean water. We have released a national strategy to
end hunger and reduce diet-related diseases, including
expanding access to nutrition and obesity counseling,
and we are providing millions of students with free,
nutritious school meals.
Globally, we are making key investments to combat
health challenges like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria,
cancer, and COVID. With the G20 and other partners, we
created the Pandemic Fund to strengthen global pandemic
preparedness, prevention, and response. At home, we
invested over $7 billion to help State and local public
health departments prepare for future crises, and we
launched Public Health AmeriCorps to train a strong,
diverse public health workforce for tomorrow.
These are vital steps needed to protect the American
people. During National Public Health Week, we are
reminded how interconnected everyone's health and well-
being are and that we are truly all in this together.
By continuing to invest in public health, we can help
ensure that the lessons of the last 4 years make our
Nation stronger for the future.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of
the United States of America, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws
of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 1
through April 7, 2024, as National Public Health Week.
I call on all citizens, government agencies, private
businesses, nonprofit organizations, and other groups
to take action to improve the health of our Nation.
[[Page 22897]]
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-ninth day of March, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
eighth.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 2024-07195
Filed 4-2-24; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3395-F4-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on April 3, 2024.
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