The Latest on How APHA Is Protecting Public Health
(as of February 6, 2026)

President signs FY 2026 minibus appropriations bill, including full-year funding for HHS agencies

On Feb. 3, President Trump signed the final FY 2026 spending package that included full-year funding for the annual Defense, Labor-HHS-Education, Financial Services, National Security-State, and Transportation-HUD bills. The bill also included a two-week continuing resolution funding the Department of Homeland Security, demanded by Senate Democrats to negotiate further on the bill to address several issues related to the administration’s handling of its ongoing immigration crackdown that resulted in the deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis last month. Negotiators will face a tight timeline to resolve issues that have proven to be very contentious between the two parties. The Senate passed the bill by a vote of 71-29, and the House followed by a vote of 217-214.

The bill would fund the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at nearly $9.15 billion, fully funding programs under CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health and providing level funding for CDC’s Injury Center, including $25 million for gun violence prevention research and $12.5 million for both CDC and the National Institutes of Health. We welcome the modest increases included in the bill for continued data modernization activities and public health infrastructure and capacity. The bill also provides level funding for CDC’s tobacco prevention and control program, domestic and global HIV/AIDS prevention activities, and other CDC programs that were marked for elimination under the administration’s FY 2026 budget proposal.

The bill also provides a modest increase in funding to HRSA, funding the agency at $8.9 billion, including fully funding HRSA’s Title X Family Planning Program, level funding for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program and level funding for critical public health workforce development and training programs.

The bill increases NIH research funding, provides near-level funding for mental health and substance abuse programs under the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and restores most of the proposed cuts to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. 

APHA issued a statement before the vote, urging the House and Senate to quickly pass the bill and praising the bipartisan cooperation among the leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.

Health organizations ask federal court to issue a preliminary injunction to block HHS vaccine changes

On Jan. 26, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association and six other health and medical organizations submitted a motion for a preliminary injunction to block the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from implementing, enforcing, or giving effect to a series of unlawful final agency actions that have abruptly and unlawfully altered the nation’s vaccine policy. The plaintiffs say that bypassing the customary evidence-based review framework is inflicting immediate, ongoing and compounding harm on public health organizations, medical associations, clinician-members and patients nationwide.

On Jan. 5, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced sweeping changes to the childhood vaccination schedule without involving the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and without following the scientific, evidence-based standard process, necessitating immediate legal action.

APHA and the other plaintiffs are seeking an expedited injunction to vacate the changes to the childhood immunization schedule announced on Jan. 5 to prevent further harm and protect evidence-based public health.

The health organizations are also arguing that the current ACIP has repeatedly and consistently relied upon spurious evidence when making vaccination recommendations. Therefore, the plaintiffs are seeking an injunction to stop ACIP from meeting and issuing further recommendations based on problematic or misconstrued evidence.

APHA and the other health organizations will continue to challenge any additional final agency actions that HHS takes to damage public health through unnecessary, unsupported and ill-advised changes to the CDC's immunization schedules. 

The organizations issued a statement outlining their plan to ask the court to issue a preliminary injunction on Jan. 13.

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.