Title VII Funds Up in 2007 Continuing Appropriations Resolution

Congress has passed and on Feb. 15 President Bush signed legislation that will provide at least $24.6 million to family medicine training programs and also will boost funding for NIH and community health centers.

The legislation, called a continuing resolution, will help keep the federal government's doors open at least through Sept. 30, which is when the federal government's current fiscal year ends. The resolution sets aside more than $48.8 million for Section 747 of the Public Health Service Act, which provides funds specifically for academic departments and programs to increase the number of primary care health professionals. Of that total amount, "not less than $24,614,000 shall be for family medicine programs," according to the legislation.

In addition, the continuing resolution increases NIH funds by $619 million and those for community health centers by $207 million.

The total Title VII allocation is an improvement over the $41 million that had been appropriated for 2006, but it is less than the $88 million set aside for Title VII in 2005. The AAFP and its colleagues in two coalitions earlier this year pressed Congress to increase Title VII funding in both the continuing resolution and the 2008 budget.

In what has become an annual tradition begun in the late 1990s, Bush recommended zero funds for Title VII in his 2008 budget proposal. In the past, despite the president's recommendation that the program be eliminated, Congress has restored funds for Title VII.