June 30, 2022
This week the House Appropriations Committee released its annual bill that includes funding for health policy programs. NKF is very pleased that our requests regarding Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) research, including key components of our Research Roadmap, were included by our various congressional champions, and grateful to our Voices for Kidney Health advocates for everything they did to help their federal representatives understand the urgency of increased kidney program funding.
The committee is expected to approve the legislation this week, after which it will be considered by the full House as early as July with the Senate's version of the spending bill coming later this year. NKF urges Senators to follow the House’s lead and increase funding for key kidney policy priorities.
Promoting Awareness, Diagnosis, and Treatment
The House bill includes $8.5 million for the CKD program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which represents a $5 million increase over the previous year and an almost 300% over the past two years. It also directs the CDC to “accelerate activities to increase awareness, diagnosis, and treatment of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and to fund partnerships to support community-based activities that enhance health systems’ capacity to identify, risk-stratify, and manage individuals with CKD,” such as NKF’s CKD Intercept program.
Other program funding allocations include:
- A $1 million increase to the National Living Donor Assistance Center (NLDAC) to a total of $8 million.
- $5 million for the Kidney X program.
NKF is heartened to see that the committee’s report includes language around transplantation policy that is consistent with our position and reinforces the importance of transplants for all. We also applaud provisions that recognize the important work of eliminating healthcare disparities across the country, better reporting rare kidney diseases particularly among Black Americans, and the reduction of organ discards to help alleviate the organ shortage.
NKF and the kidney advocate community will continue urging the Senate to join the House in taking these crucial steps and promoting increased awareness, education, and research of kidney disease nationwide.
