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The Honorable Robert Aderholt Chair Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515	The Honorable Rosa DeLauro Ranking Member Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515
The Honorable Tammy Baldwin Chair Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education U.S. Senate Washington, D.C. 20510	The Honorable Shelley Moore Capito Ranking Member Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education U.S. Senate Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Chair Aderholt, Ranking Member DeLauro, Chair Baldwin and Ranking Member Capito: 

We, the undersigned professional societies and associations, academic institutions and companies, representing a broad range of scientific, public health and clinical professionals, thank you for your past support of the Advanced Molecular Detection (AMD) program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Given the program’s increasing importance to our nation’s public health response to infectious disease threats, we respectfully request that you provide $175 million for the CDC AMD program in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies bill. This funding level aligns with the level authorized in the Tracking Pathogens Act, which was enacted as part of a year-end legislative package in 2022.   

As we move beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, the AMD program continues to form new partnerships and to innovate so that cutting edge genomic and bioinformatic technologies can be deployed on the front lines of public health throughout the country and across the globe. In addition to dozens of public-private partnerships that have been leveraged to address sequencing of COVID-19 samples, the program also has forged innovative partnerships with public health agencies and academic laboratories in 5 states through new Pathogen Genomics Centers of Excellence. These centers will ensure that our public health system can continue to benefit from rapidly evolving, cutting-edge science and technology that is driven by research institutions and well-connected to public health.   

By bringing precision medicine to public health, the program gives the nation new tools to detect disease more quickly and more accurately, identify outbreaks sooner and protect people from emerging and evolving disease threats, whether seasonal such as influenza or RSV, endemic such as Lyme disease, or epidemic in nature. Beyond pathogen surveillance, public health sequencing work informs vaccine development, helps to identify and track antimicrobial resistance and foodborne illness and informs the development of diagnostics for new, existing and emerging diseases.  

Thanks to Congressional actions over the past 3 years, the AMD program expanded training for public health and clinical laboratory professionals in genomics and bioinformatics, and it has helped to grow the workforce needed for data analysis, interpretation and decision-making. Through regional workforce development and investment in shared technology services, AMD is helping to ensure that our nation’s public health microbiologists, epidemiologists and other health care professionals have the tools needed to apply biotechnology-driven innovations to complex problems. This enables higher quality data and analytics that CDC and its public health partners can use to detect outbreaks sooner, respond more effectively and ensure that these tools are available in laboratories across the U.S.   

Since 2014, the AMD program has employed next generation sequencing (NGS) to bring the concept of precision medicine to bear for “precision public health.” A funding level of $175 million for the CDC AMD program will ensure that this important work can continue now and into the future for the betterment of public health. We thank you for your consideration of our request.   

Sincerely, 

AdvaMedDx 
American Clinical Laboratory Association 
American Institute of Biological Sciences 
American Medical Technologists 
American Public Health Association 
American Society for Clinical Pathology 
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American Society for Virology 
American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 
Association for Diagnostics and Laboratory Medicine 
Association for Molecular Pathology 
Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology 
Association of American Medical Colleges 
Association of Public Health Laboratories 
Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health  
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials 
Big Cities Health Coalition 
Biophysical Society 
Clear Labs 
College of American Pathologists 
FIND 
Global Health Technologies Coalition 
Harvard University 
Helix, Inc.  
Infectious Diseases Society of America  
Society for Public Health Education  
Trust for America's Health 
UVA Health