At the end of last year (27 DEC 2020), President Trump signed into law a $1.4 trillion government funding package. The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) published a summary here (https://www.ncsl.org/ncsl-in-dc/publications-and-resources/covid-19-economic-relief-bill-stimulus.aspx ). It included $900 billion in COVID relief. In addition to enhanced unemployment benefits and aid to various sectors, it included the following HHS Appropriations:
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1. $73 billion to HHS to support public health, including:
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2. $8.75 billion to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to support federal, state, local, territorial and tribal public health agencies to distribute, administer, monitor and track coronavirus vaccination to ensure broad-based distribution, access and vaccine coverage, including:
1). $4.5 billion for state, local, territorial, and tribal public health departments.
2). $300 million for a targeted effort to distribute and administer vaccines to high-risk and underserved populations, including racial and ethnic minority populations and rural communities.
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3. $22.945 billion for the Office of Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response to respond to coronavirus, including:
1). $19.695 billion for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority for manufacturing and procurement of vaccines and therapeutics, as well as ancillary supplies necessary for the administration of vaccines and therapeutics.
2). $3.25 billion for the Strategic National Stockpile.
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4. $55 million for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for continued work on FDA efforts to facilitate the development and review, both pre-market and post-market, of medical countermeasures, devices, therapies, and vaccines to combat the coronavirus. In addition, funds will support medical product supply chain monitoring and other public health research and response investments.
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5. $25.4 billion to the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund to support testing and contact tracing to effectively monitor and suppress COVID-19, as well as to reimburse for health care-related expenses or lost revenue attributable to the coronavirus, including:
$22.4 billion for testing, contact tracing, and other activities necessary to effectively monitor and suppress COVID-19, including $2.5 billion for a targeted effort to improve testing capabilities and contact tracing in high-risk and underserved populations, including racial and ethnic minority populations and rural communities.
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6. $1.25 billion for National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support research and clinical trials related to the long-term effects of COVID-19, as well as continued support for Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics for COVID-19.
We are watching the Biden administration and expect additional funds to become available for COVID through new legislation. There is much discussion about the imbalance between vaccine funding and diagnostics/therapeutics funding and we expect more to be committed to these areas. Follow this blog for additional news and analysis. All this funding will undoubtedly lead to publication of several new solicitations and EverGlade can help you prepare for them. The award process typically involves two stages- white paper and invited full proposal. Our staff has decades of cumulative experience in the preparation and review of both of these. EverGlade can also help in in the post-award phase EverGlade can help with the administration of the contract. By outsourcing the daily contract administration activities like project and budget coordination your internal human and financial resources will remain available for other programs and allow you to focus on technical management. If you want to spend more time on that and less on contract administration, EverGlade can help.