The Latest on How APHA Is Protecting Public Health
(as of January 9, 2026)

Watch: APHA's Rally for the Public's Health

Held on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025, rally speakers shared powerful stories, bold ideas and calls to action that demonstrated the strength, unity and passion of the public health community — and reinforced that protecting the public’s health is not optional, it’s essential.

 

Congress returns with Jan. 30 deadline to finalize FY 2026 spending bills

With Congress having passed a short-term continuing resolution to keep the federal government operating until Jan. 30 before leaving for a holiday recess, the House and Senate returned this week, with finalizing the remaining FY 2026 spending bills at the top of the agenda. Three full-year FY 2026 funding bills, including Agriculture, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-VA, were finalized as part of the most recent continuing resolution. The nine remaining bills, including the FY 2026 Labor-HHS-Education bills, face a Jan. 30 deadline to keep all agencies and programs operating. The House is expected to take up a three-bill package this week that includes full-year funding for the Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy-Water and Interior-Environment bills.

On Oct. 30, APHA led a letter from the CDC Coalition to House and Senate Appropriations Committee leaders encouraging them to follow the Senate’s lead and work together in a bipartisan manner to provide adequate funding for CDC in any final FY 2026 spending bill. APHA also led a letter from the Friends of HRSA coalition urging leaders to also provide adequate funding for HRSA’s programs in any final FY 2026 spending agreement.

APHA members can contact their members of Congress, urging them to prioritize public health funding as they work to finalize the FY 2026 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill by visiting APHA’s action alert site.

You can view additional information about the FY 2026 annual appropriations process, including APHA actions and statements in APHA’s Sept. Legislative Update. 

House passes legislation to extend ACA tax credits

On Jan. 8, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1834, legislation to extend the enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits for an additional three years. The bill, strongly supported by APHA, passed the House by a vote of 230-196. The bill came to the floor after several moderate Republican members joined all members of the Democratic Caucus in signing a discharge petition that required the Speaker of the House, who had previously refused to allow a vote on the plan, to bring the bill to the floor for a vote by the full House. Because Congress failed to act last year, the enhanced credits expired at the end of 2025. It is estimated that the failure to extend the tax credits will result in more than 4 million individuals losing health care coverage and will lead to skyrocketing premiums for millions of ACA Marketplace enrollees. The enhanced premium tax credits have helped more than 22 million Americans afford their health insurance coverage and have more than doubled the number of Americans who can access comprehensive coverage through the ACA Marketplace. The Senate failed to pass a similar proposal in Dec. 2025, and the fate of the House-passed bill in the Senate is uncertain.

APHA joins public charge comments to the Department of Homeland Security

On Dec. 19, APHA joined the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and 65 public health and health policy deans, chairs and scholars in submitting comments to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in an open comment period for a proposed rule on public charge determination. The rule, published in November, would rescind the previous 2022 rule on public charge, leaving immigration officers without specific guidance and giving them massive authority when making public charger determinations. Not only would this make the determinations arbitrary and inconsistent, but it would lead to a chilling effect and decreased use of public health services, threatening the health of immigrant communities and all Americans. Experts estimate that the rule, if put into effect, could cause 3.7 million members of immigrant households to lose access to public benefits. The estimate also suggests that the new rule would cause state economies to lose $27.4 billion in 2026 and 212,000 jobs. The submitted comments outline all of these effects, as well as the fact that the proposed rule would actually violate the law due to its impermissible retroactive effect that allows the inclusion of programs previously banned for consideration for public charge determination. The comments urge DHS to withdraw the harmful proposed rule and leave the 2022 rule, which has much clearer and helpful guidelines, in place.

New Dietary Guidelines for Americans released by HHS and USDA

On Jan. 7, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture released the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, nutrition guidelines that are used to set policy for various federal nutrition programs. The guidelines are updated every five years. The new document contains the following recommendations for eating healthy:

• An emphasis on protein and dairy, with recommendations including 1.2–1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day and three servings per day of dairy as part of a 2,000-calorie dietary pattern;
• An emphasis on “real” food over highly-processed foods;
• Three servings of vegetables and two servings of fruit per day;
• Two to four servings of whole grains per day;
• No more than 10 grams of added sugars per meal and saturated fat consumption not exceeding 10% of total daily calories;
• Less than 2,300 mg per day of sodium; and
• Reduced alcohol intake.

APHA will continue to support the use of evidence-based nutrition guidelines when making changes to programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a priority in the upcoming Farm Bill passage.

Watch: Making sense of the buzzwords and protecting public health

You’ve probably heard the buzzwords — "Big Beautiful Bill," "Reconciliation," "FY 2025," "FY 2026," "Rescission Package." What do these terms mean, and how could they impact public health funding in your community?

Watch: When Cutting Costs, Costs Health: What You Need to Know about Federal Policy Changes

In June and July, the U.S. Congress passed two large bills that formally upend decades of public health work in the U.S. and abroad. To pay for tax cuts, Congress - with pressure from the President - changed eligibility criteria for Medicaid, SNAP, and codified funding cuts for global health and democracy programs and public broadcasting.