<insert organization’s letterhead>
<insert date>
Senator
US Senate
Washington, DC
- OR The Honorable
US House of Representatives
Washington, DC
Dear Senator
(or Representative
):
I am writing to ask for your support for the HRSA Public Health Training Centers (PHTC)
Program which prepares the current and future public health workforce with the goals of
strengthening the public health infrastructure throughout the United States and its territories. I
am a <insert role title e.g. county name Health Officer> and, along with my colleagues, have
received critical training from the Empire State Public Health Training Center, one of 37 training
centers in 32 states. The decision has been made to reduce funding from the FY 2012 level of
$24 million to $3.3 million in FY 2013 (an 86 percent reduction leaving each center with
$90,000). There was no opportunity for Congressional review, and although we recognize that
this decision was purely budgetary and did not reflect programmatic concerns, this funding level
makes it all but impossible for PHTCs to offer the same breadth of training and puts the centers’
operability in jeopardy. The President’s Budget for FY 2014 proposes roughly the same amount
for the following year, again leaving PHTCs with the same dilemma. I am requesting that you
support the PHTC program for FY 2014 at $24 million (the FY 2012 level) for the 37
existing PHTCs.
PHTCs focus on the technical, scientific, managerial, and leadership competencies and
capabilities of the current and future public health workforce with emphasis on the existing
public health workforce. Training topics addressed by the PHTCs include environmental health,
public health leadership, nutrition, management, cultural competency, and risk communication.
PHTCs are critical to the enumeration and composition of the public health workforce and the
quality of services delivered. Four out of five public health workers have not had formal training
for their specific job functions and by 2020 there will be a shortage of 250,000 public health
workers; PHTCs are changing these figures. In FY 2012, PHTC grantees developed over 2,000
educational offerings and trained over 160,000 professionals in public health. The trained
individuals represent 19 public health disciplines with 45 percent working in public health
departments and 55 percent delivering essential public health services in community based
organizations. Prevention is the cornerstone of improving the health of our country AND the
mechanism that will reduce out of control health care expenditures. Failure to provide state of
the art prevention oriented training to the public health workforce assures that our health care
costs will continue to escalate. <insert specific example of how training benefitted you and/or
customize this section as necessary>.
<insert story of impact for respective PHTC and your county/state/ organization.
<Insert other impacts to school and community, as necessary>.
Thank you for doing all you can to ensure that the PHTC Program receives the funding needed
to train the critical public health workforce. Please take one key action:
1. Support funding for the PHTC program at $24 million in fiscal year 2014, keeping it at its
2012 funding level.
Thank you for considering this important request.
Sincerely yours,
<insert name, degrees, and role title>