On March 11, 2024, the Biden Administration released the President’s FY 2025 budget. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) budget request for FY 2025 includes $9.783 billion in discretionary budget authority, Public Health Service evaluation funds, and the Affordable Care Act Prevention and Public Health Fund, which is $500 million over the FY 2023 enacted appropriation. This budget request aims to build a sustainable and resilient public health system that can respond effectively to emerging threats and ongoing public health needs.

 

The FY 2025 budget includes $969 million, an increase of $50 million above FY 2023 enacted, in discretionary resources for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. This includes $732 million, an increase of $50 million for the discretionary Section 317 Immunization program, to support ongoing work on COVID-19 and other public health threats like influenza and localized outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illnesses. The funding also focuses on modernizing immunization systems and monitoring platforms, implementing new strategies for vaccine equity, building vaccine confidence, and expanding the scientific evidence base.  

 

As well as investments in the discretionary Section 317 Immunization program, the budget continues the President’s FY24 proposal to expand the Vaccines for Children (VFC) Program and to establish a new mandatory Vaccines for Adults (VFA) Program. The budget includes about $8 billion in mandatory resources for VFC and about $1 billion in mandatory resources for the new VFA program. The budget also continues the President’s FY24 proposal to expand the VFC Program to include all children under age 19 enrolled in the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and make program improvements by setting a floor for provider reimbursements for vaccine administration and eliminating cost-sharing for eligible children. Legislation would have to be introduced and passed to accomplish this goal.  

 

The VFA program would be modeled on the successful VFC program and tailored to adults. The VFA program would provide funding for the purchase of Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)-recommended vaccines for eligible adults. The goal is to reduce the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases, reduce vaccination coverage disparities, and enhance and maintain the infrastructure needed for responding to future pandemics.