The Health Resources and Services Administration’s Fiscal Year 2002 budget will total $6.2 billion, an increase of $545 million over last year’s discretionary spending level.  President Bush signed legislation containing the FY 2002 figures on Jan. 10.

The President also signed supplemental terrorist recovery appropriations, with HRSA receiving $275 million for counter-bioterrorism activities.

“This new budget is evidence that Congress and the administration have great confidence in our mission and our ability to meet it,” said HRSA Acting Administrator Elizabeth M. Duke, Ph.D.  “It is a strong vote of support for our goal to increase access to vital health care services for the Nation’s most vulnerable individuals and families.”

The FY 2002 appropriation contains the following changes for HRSA bureaus and offices:   

• the budget for HIV/AIDS programs under the Ryan White CARE Act will increase by $103 million over the FY 2001 adjusted appropriation to $1.91 billion in FY 2002;
  
  
• the overall budget for Primary Health Care programs will rise by $159 million to $1.48 billion, which includes a $175 million increase over the FY 2001 appropriation for community health centers;
  
  
• funds for Maternal and Child Health programs will increase by more than $57 million to almost $982 million;

• Health Professions programs for training, scholarships, diversity and placements will rise by $48 million to $533 million (the National Health Service Corps was transferred to the Bureau of Health Professions in 2001);

• the budget for Special Programs will jump by $67 million to $369 million, largely due to one-time-only health facilities construction projects;

• funds for Rural Health programs will increase by $37 million to $149 million; and

• the budget for Telehealth projects will rise by $3 million to $39 million, due to one-time earmarked projects.

The increase for the health center program represents a down payment on President Bush’s five-year plan to create new or expand health center sites in 1,200 communities and increase the number of patients served by 6 million.  The president's long-term goal is to double the number of people served.  Health center programs each year provide family-oriented preventive and primary health care services to more than 10.5 million people at 3,200 access points nationwide.

The budget also includes two new programs:

• the Radiogenic Disease State program ($4 million) will make grants to state and local health care organizations to support early detection, prevention and education programs to help thousands of individuals exposed to radiation from the mining of uranium and the testing of nuclear weapons; and

• the Rural Access to Automatic External Devices program ($12.5 million) will increase the availability of defibrillators in rural communities.

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