Senator Hassan, Colleagues Call for Additional Funding for Public Health Education
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) joined Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) in urging Senate leaders to include an additional $20 million in funding for the Regional Public Health Training Centers program in upcoming COVID-19 response legislation.
There are 10 Public Health Training Centers across the country, including the New England Public Health Training Center that supports the New Hampshire Public Health Association. Public Health Training Centers offer training programs and overall help to strengthen our country’s health care workforce.
“These critical [Public Health Training Center] programs provide specialized training and technical assistance to public health students and professionals, helping to meet the workforce needs of state and local public health agencies,” wrote the Senators. “Looking ahead, a robust pipeline of qualified public health workers will be critical to states’ responses to the next phase of the coronavirus outbreak…Additional resources delivered to PHTCs would have an exponential impact on the capacity of local public health departments to fulfill their missions by providing training and human resources that they can use to scale up operations in response to the pandemic.”
The letter is part of Senator Hassan’s continued focus on supporting New Hampshire’s workforce, in particular to ensure that New Hampshire has training and education programs that will support ongoing public health needs. Senator Hassan previously joined her colleagues in pushing for critical workforce development and career and technical education funding in the next COVID-19 relief bill. As unemployment in New Hampshire and across the country continues to hit record levels, the Senators’ letter highlighted the concern that workers will need additional training to meet current workforce needs, such as in health care or for manufacturers producing personal protective equipment.
Full text of the letter can be found here.
###
