BCHC and others ask Congress to provide funding for public health data modernization
May 2025
Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC) and 70 other organizations are asking Congress for $340 million annually for public health data modernization at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including an additional $55 million for the CDC’s Response Ready Enterprise Data Integration platform (RREDI) and $100 million for the Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics (CFA).
CDC’s public health data modernization efforts represent a long-term commitment to building and maintaining world-class data systems and workforce that meet the nation’s ongoing need to safeguard health. Public health data is not only needed during an emergency response; it is necessary for people and communities to thrive by rapidly identifying, tracking, and responding to daily public health threats of all types—acute, chronic, and emerging.
As technology evolves and becomes more central to supporting and maintaining our health, our public health data systems will continue to need updates, software patches, security vulnerability protection, and upgrades, and the staff supporting these critical systems will need ongoing training. Public health workers and agencies are essential for protecting and improving the health of communities, but they cannot do their work without adequate funding.
To capitalize on the initial investment, more funding is needed for states to maintain and support upgraded systems and not return to antiquated data collection and sharing processes.
Unfortunately, data modernization efforts across the country have been interrupted or completely halted by recent, abrupt CDC funding terminations, stalling progress on work that is needed to protect us from current and emerging public health threats.
So far, Congress has provided an initial down payment of more than $1 billion for public health data modernization through annual and supplemental appropriations—which has been critical to catalyzing the work, but consistent annual funding is necessary to maintain improvements, make continued upgrades as technology advances, and support the expert public health workforce. Lack of consistent funding will halt progress, and force health departments to move backwards abandoning projects before completion.
Public Health data modernization, RREDI, and CFA are each necessary components of the CDC’s public health data strategy, and each must be funded separately and robustly to help communities stay safe and thrive. Base funding for data modernization must be retained and grow with additional funds added for RREDI and CFA in the FY26 appropriations bill.
Continuous investment in these crucial activities is essential to ensure the strength and resilience of the nationwide public health data system.
