02.06.18

Hoeven Calls for Community Health Center Funding to be Extended

WASHINGTON – Senator John Hoeven this week joined a bipartisan group of senators in calling on Senate leadership to immediately extend funding for community health centers (CHCs). 

“CHCs provide an important health care option for communities across our state,” Hoeven said. “This affordable and accessible health care is especially important for low-income households, helping to stave off preventable diseases and improving our quality of life. Extending this funding enjoys broad, bipartisan support, and we urge the Senate leaders to move forward on this priority immediately.”

As the senators note in their letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the CHC Fund expired on September 30, 2017. Not extending the fund has made it difficult for CHCs to treat their patients, as well as adequately plan for everything from staffing needs to securing loans for capital projects. This effort follows a similar letter Hoeven joined to the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in September.

The full text of the letter, which was led by Senators Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), can be found here.

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