Washington–Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) joined Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and a group of their colleagues to urge Senate leadership to include at least $471 million in funding for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in the omnibus spending bill.

The most recent funding package for FY2021 unveiled by the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies includes a drastic 24 percent cut for the sole federal agency focused on generating research to advance health care delivery system efficiency, a function critical in our country’s response to pandemics like COVID-19. Providing the agency with $471 million would restore its funding to 2010 levels, giving AHRQ the capacity to evaluate the U.S. health care system’s response to the pandemic, pinpoint shortcomings, and improve national preparedness for future crises.

“AHRQ is an essential element of the nation’s health care ecosystem, charged with improving the quality and delivery of health care, and a critical part of our nation’s COVID-19 response,” the senators wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Chairman Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.). “It is critical that AHRQ receive the necessary funding to continue their work, during the pandemic and beyond. Every dollar we invest in AHRQ ensures that our health care system will continue to improve in efficiency and outcomes.” 

In addition to Feinstein and Blumenthal, the letter was also signed by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). 

The letter to is available here and below.

December 10, 2020 

The Honorable Mitch McConnell                              The Honorable Chuck Schumer

Majority Leader                                                          Minority Leader

United States Senate                                                   United States Senate

The Capitol, S-230                                                     The Capitol, S-221

Washington, DC 20510                                              Washington, DC 20510 

The Honorable Roy Blunt                                          The Honorable Patty Murray

Chairman                                                                    Ranking Member

Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education                  Subcommittee of Labor-HHS-Education

Senate Appropriations Committee                             Senate Appropriations Committee

136 Dirksen Senate Office Building                          125 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20510                                            Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Majority Leader McConnell, Minority Leader Schumer, Chairman Blunt, and Ranking Member Murray, 

We write today to reiterate the urgent need for increased funding for the Agency on Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in Fiscal Year 2021. In March, many of us wrote you with the request of $471 million, equal to the agency’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 appropriation. Unfortunately, the most recent Senate Labor Health and Human Services (Labor-HHS) package included a 24% cut for AHRQ. AHRQ is an essential element of the nation’s health care ecosystem, charged with improving the quality and delivery of health care, and a critical part of our nation’s COVID-19 response. As such, we ask that you reconsider this proposed cut and include at least $471 million in funding for AHRQ. 

AHRQ is the only federal agency whose sole focus is to generate reliable research on how to deliver the highest quality care, at the greatest value, with the best outcomes to all patients. It is the only agency that funds research on the “real-world” patient—the one who doesn’t have diabetes alone, for example, but also has cardiovascular disease and renal disease; or the patient who has cancer, as well as heart disease. AHRQ-funded research and databases allow us to understand where waste, inefficiencies, and gaps exist within the health care system, and allows patients, payers, providers, and others to harness American innovation and make the health care system safer, more efficient, and more effective. 

Unfortunately, as the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated, AHRQ’s work has never been more relevant or more necessary. Americans with multiple chronic conditions are at a greater risk of developing COVID-19, and as our healthcare heroes and hospitals continue to be stretched thin by a surge of COVID-19 cases, we must look for ways to make our health care system as efficient as possible. Furthermore, AHRQ, and AHRQ alone, has the tools to study our response to the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure that those findings are reflected in pandemic responses now and in the future. AHRQ has already demonstrated their strength in newly published research on telehealth and vaccine efficacy in the COVID-19 era. 

It is critical that AHRQ receive the necessary funding to continue their work, during the pandemic and beyond. Every dollar we invest in AHRQ ensures that our health care system will continue to improve in efficiency and outcomes. We urge you to heed the call of public health experts and researchers in adequately funding AHRQ. 

Sincerely,

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