CDC Office on Smoking and Health should be funded in FY26
May 2025
Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC) joins over 80 organizations to request funding for the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health as the House and Senate decide the Fiscal Year 2026 budget.
The elimination of CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) would have a profoundly negative impact on our nation’s efforts to reduce the death and disease caused by tobacco. If CDC OSH funding is eliminated, all its programs may end, including vital funding to states and its highly successful national media campaign.
At a time when there is renewed focus on preventing chronic disease and protecting children’s health, it is essential that Congress provide CDC with resources to reduce the death and disease caused by tobacco use as well as other risks to public health.
Tobacco use has long been the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Each year, our nation loses nearly 500,000 Americans to tobacco use and spends $241 billion treating tobacco-related disease, with more than 60 percent of these costs paid for by government programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Tobacco use almost always begins during adolescence, and most adults who smoke want to quit, but overcoming an addiction to nicotine is difficult and often requires multiple quit attempts.
Backsliding on efforts to prevent kids from using tobacco products or to help adult tobacco users to quit will cost additional lives and increase health care expenditures.
While smoking rates overall have declined, more than 26 million people in the U.S. currently smoke, and more than 16 million Americans are living with a tobacco-caused disease. Progress in reducing smoking has been uneven. There is a need to enhance tobacco prevention and cessation programs where the need is greatest so that every person has an opportunity to avoid nicotine addiction and the health consequences of tobacco use.
Investments in tobacco prevention and cessation will protect kids, save lives, and reduce the cost of treating tobacco-caused disease. We urge Congress to reject the Administration’s elimination of CDC OSH and appropriate funds for CDC to continue its work to reduce tobacco use. With $310 million, CDC will be able to address the challenges posed by e-cigarettes and continue to make progress reducing the death and disease caused by other tobacco products, especially those most at risk for tobacco-caused disease.
