Public Health Service Agencies: Overview and Funding (FY2015-FY2017)

Summary

Within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), eight agencies are designated components of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS). The PHS agencies are funded primarily with annual discretionary appropriations. They also receive significant amounts of funding from other sources including mandatory funds from the Affordable Care Act (ACA), user fees, and third-party reimbursements (collections).

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) funds research on improving the quality and delivery of health care. For several years prior to FY2015, AHRQ did not receive its own annual appropriation. Instead, it relied on redistributed (“set-aside”) discretionary funds from other PHS agencies for most of its funding, with supplemental amounts from the ACA’s mandatory Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund (PCORTF). In FY2015 and FY2016, AHRQ received its own discretionary appropriation in lieu of set-aside funds, with the FY2016 level of $428 million below the FY2015 level of $443 million.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the federal government’s lead public health agency. CDC obtains its funding from multiple sources besides discretionary appropriations. The agency’s funding level has fluctuated in the past few years, with the FY2016 level of $11.8 billion above the FY2015 level of $11.2 billion. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) investigates the public health impact of exposure to hazardous substances. ATSDR is headed by the CDC director and included in the discussion of CDC in this report.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates drugs, medical devices, food, and tobacco products, among other consumer products. The agency is funded with annual discretionary appropriations and industry user fees. The FDA’s funding level in FY2016 was $4.7 billion—above the FY2015 level of $4.5 billion—with user fees accounting for about 43% of FDA’s total funding.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) funds programs and systems that provide health care services to the uninsured and medically underserved. HRSA, like CDC, relies on funding from several different sources. The agency’s funding increased from $10.6 billion in FY2015 to $10.8 billion in FY2016.

The Indian Health Service (IHS) supports a health care delivery system for Native Americans. IHS’s funding, which includes discretionary appropriations and collections from third-party payers of health care, increased between FY2015 and FY2016 from $5.9 billion to $6.2 billion. Appropriations and collections both increased during that period.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds basic, clinical, and translational biomedical and behavioral research. NIH gets more than 99% of its funding from discretionary appropriations. Recent increases in NIH’s annual appropriations have boosted its funding level to a new high of $32.3 billion in FY2016, compared to $30.3 billion in FY2015.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) funds mental health and substance abuse prevention and treatment services. SAMHSA’s funding, about 95% of which comes from discretionary appropriations, was approximately $3.6 billion in FY2015 and $3.7 billion in FY2016.

This report is a new edition of an earlier product, which remains available: CRS Report R43304, Public Health Service Agencies: Overview and Funding (FY2010-FY2016). It will be updated with information on PHS agency funding for FY2017 once legislative action on appropriations for the new fiscal year is completed.