This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated.

News Release

HHS PROVIDES $1.4 BILLION MORE TO STATES
AND HOSPITALS FOR TERRORISM PREPAREDNESS

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced that the Department has made available another $1.4 billion to the states, territories and three metropolitan areas to help strengthen their capacity to respond to terrorism and other public health emergencies. The money will allow states to continue planning and upgrading the public health system and hospitals/health care entities that will be called upon to respond.

"Continuing to improve our public health system and the capacity of our hospitals and major health providers is crucial at this time in our nation's history," Secretary Thompson said. "We must build on the outstanding progress made in the past year and continue working with our state and local partners to enhance our readiness and our ability to respond to public health emergencies. Our combined efforts will result in a stronger system to care for Americans in emergencies, whether it be a bioterror attack or an infectious disease outbreak like SARS or West Nile virus."

The funds will be used to upgrade infectious disease surveillance and investigation, enhance the readiness of hospitals and the health care system to deal with large numbers of casualties, expand public health laboratory and communications capacities and improve connectivity between hospitals, and city, local and state health departments to enhance disease reporting.

The HHS funding is awarded as two separate but interrelated cooperative agreements. HHS' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is providing $870 million for strengthening public health preparedness to address bioterrorism, outbreaks of infectious diseases and public health emergencies. The funds are to be used for readiness assessment, surveillance and epidemiology, biological lab capacity, chemical lab capacity, communications technology, health information dissemination, education and training and smallpox preparedness planning.

HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration is providing $498 million for states to develop surge capacity to deal with mass casualty events. This includes the expansion of hospital beds, development of isolation capacity, identifying additional health care personnel, establishing hospital-based pharmaceutical caches, and providing mental health services, trauma and burn care, communications and personal protective equipment. Hospitals play a critical role in both identifying and responding to any potential terrorism attack or infectious disease outbreak.

Overall, HHS is spending $3.5 billion this year for bioterrorism preparedness, including research into potential biological agents that could be used as bioterror weapons as well as potential treatments and vaccines. The fiscal year 2003 funding is up from about $1.8 billion for these activities in 2002.

Last year, HHS provided a total $1.1 billion to the states, territories and three major metropolitan areas for these preparedness activities. States have indicated that approximately 75 percent of those fiscal year 2002 funds are being provided directly to local governments and hospitals, or on spending to benefit local and hospital infrastructure and support systems. The funds were made available by HHS in June and July of 2002, with as much as 20 percent of the funding actually released several months earlier. States are still drawing down on these funds as they ramp up their preparedness activities. So far, states have drawn about $563 million of last year's total.

Amounts for each state are shown in the following chart.

Amounts to be provided this year to each state and territory, and to three metropolitan areas, are as follows. Amounts from HHS' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are for public health systems preparedness, and amounts from HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) are for hospital preparedness.

Department of Health and Human Services Fiscal Year 2003 Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Hospital Preparedness Funding by State, Selected Municipalities, Territory
State	CDC	HRSA	Total to Jurisdiction
Alabama	$14,056,645	$7,762,315	$21,818,960
Alaska	$6,284,107	$1,958,803	$8,242,910
Arizona	$15,755,035	$9,030,450	$24,785,485
Arkansas	$10,461,043	$5,077,591	$15,538,634
California	$55,589,662	$38,773,726	$94,363,388
LA County	$24,531,232	$15,583,364	$40,114,596
Colorado	$13,979,790	$7,704,930	$21,684,720
Connecticut	$11,960,524	$6,197,207	$18,157,731
Delaware	$6,614,378	$2,205,406	$8,819,784
District of Columbia	$11,162,901	$2,868,302	$14,031,203
Florida	$38,181,999	$25,775,967	$63,957,966
Georgia	$22,034,847	$13,719,390	$35,754,237
Hawaii	$7,486,672	$2,856,721	$10,343,393
Idaho	$7,676,282	$2,998,297	$10,674,579
Illinois	$24,923,148	$15,875,995	$40,799,143
Chicago	$10,450,197	$5,069,493	$15,519,690
Indiana	$17,416,386	$10,270,929	$27,687,315
Iowa	$10,941,890	$5,436,624	$16,378,514
Kansas	$10,476,095	$5,088,830	$15,564,925
Kentucky	$13,245,815	$7,156,894	$20,402,709
Louisiana	$14,059,595	$7,764,518	$21,824,113
Maine	$7,603,092	$2,943,648	$10,546,740
Maryland	$15,915,365	$9,150,163	$25,065,528
Massachusetts	$17,972,524	$10,686,180	$28,658,704
Michigan	$25,278,581	$16,141,386	$41,419,967
Minnesota	$15,101,600	$8,542,551	$23,644,151
Mississippi	$10,795,501	$5,327,321	$16,122,822
Missouri	$16,424,504	$9,530,322	$25,954,826
Montana	$6,834,837	$2,370,015	$9,204,852
Nebraska	$8,485,811	$3,602,747	$12,088,558
Nevada	$9,251,219	$4,174,253	$13,425,472
New Hampshire	$7,552,202	$2,905,650	$10,457,852
New Jersey	$22,248,528	$13,878,940	$36,127,468
New Mexico	$8,710,551	$3,770,553	$12,481,104
New York	$27,794,404	$18,019,873	$45,814,277
New York City	$20,881,716	$12,858,383	$33,740,099
North Carolina	$21,630,396	$13,417,400	$35,047,796
North Dakota	$6,290,025	$1,963,221	$8,253,246
Ohio	$28,082,405	$18,234,914	$46,317,319
Oklahoma	$12,031,404	$6,250,131	$18,281,535
Oregon	$12,039,235	$6,255,978	$18,295,213
Pennsylvania	$29,933,326	$19,616,940	$49,550,266
Rhode Island	$7,147,493	$2,603,466	$9,750,959
South Carolina	$13,232,255	$7,146,769	$20,379,024
South Dakota	$6,536,811	$2,147,489	$8,684,300
Tennessee	$16,651,663	$9,699,934	$26,351,597
Texas	$48,310,184	$33,338,368	$81,648,552
Utah	$9,618,011	$4,448,125	$14,066,136
Vermont	$6,242,254	$1,927,552	$8,169,806
Virginia	$19,584,849	$11,890,053	$31,474,902
Washington	$17,146,134	$10,069,141	$27,215,275
West Virginia	$8,649,835	$3,725,218	$12,375,053
Wisconsin	$15,955,629	$9,180,227	$25,135,856
Wyoming	$6,000,636	$1,747,144	$7,747,780
Territory	CDC	HRSA	Total to Jurisdiction
American Samoa	$553,313	$601,511	$1,154,824
Guam	$625,215	$738,414	$1,363,629
Northern Marianas Islands	$559,296	$612,902	$1,172,198
Puerto Rico	$12,778,777	$6,808,171	$19,586,948
Virgin Islands (US)	$597,124	$684,929
Freely Associated State	CDC	HRSA	Total to Jurisdiction
Federated States of Micronesia	$606,968	$703,671	$1,310,639
Marshall Islands	$542,911	$581,705	$1,124,616
Palau	$515,173	$528,890	$1,044,063
	CDC Total	HRSA Total	Grand Total
Grand Total	$870,000,000	$498,000,000	$1,368,000,000
Source for population figures: http://www.census.gov (All are July 1, 2001 numbers.)

###

Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.

Last Revised: September 2, 2003