City Council Agenda and Packet 2021 04 13 SP

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providers, many of whom were already stretched thin before COVID-19 and have suffered additional lost revenue due to the pandemic. • International Food Aid: The bill will provide $800 million to Food for Peace Title II to purchase US grown commodities for distribution to those experiencing hunger in developing countries. COVID-19 has worsened the hunger crisis around the world, with several countries at -risk of famine as a result. Title II — Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions • Vaccines: In order to ensure vaccines reach every community as quickly as possible, especially communities of color and hard to reach areas, there is $7.5 billion in CDC funding for vaccine distribution — including the vaccine clinics proposed by the Biden administration.. There is also $5.2 billion for BARDA for vaccine and supplies procurement. • Testing: The bill provides $48.3 billion for testing in order to contain the virus and mitigate its effects, hire staff for contact tracing, provide PPE for frontline health workers, and take other steps to combat the virus, such as enabling isolation and quarantine. The bill also provides $1.733 billion for enhanced genomic sequencing. • Health Workforce: Public health workers in communities across the country are the key to getting the virus under control. Every clinician that administers the vaccine is supported by a team of public health workers who make the system work. However, local and state health departments have lost 23 percent of their workforce since 2008, and almost a quarter of health department staff are currently eligible for retirement. This bill provides $7.66 billion to bolster the public health workforce and COVID-19 response. • Community Health Centers and Health Disparities: Deeply rooted systemic racism, bias, and discrimination have created health disparities that have been exacerbated by the flawed pandemic response. Significant investments are necessary to repair, and begin to reverse, these disparities — this bill delivers immediate relief to frontline providers who serve communities of color and underserved populations hardest hit by pandemic. This includes $7.6 billion for community health centers, $1.44 billion for Older Americans Act programs, $800 million for the National Health Services Corps and more. • Mental Health: The need for accessible mental health and substance use disorder treatment has skyrocketed during the pandemic, with cash -strapped states and localities struggling to meet the need. The bill includes $3.88 billion to expand on those investments made in the year-end 2020 package to increase availability of treatment. • K-12 Schools: ARP provides over $125 billion for public K-12 schools to safely reopen schools for in -person learning, address learning loss, and support students as they work to recover from the long-term impacts of the pandemic. The bill includes $122.747 billion in funding for the Elementary and Secondary School Education Relief Fund (ESSER). States are required to subgrant at least 90 percent of ESSER funds to school districts to support the implementation of public health protocols to safely reopen schools for in - person learning, address students' learning loss, and meet students' long-term academic, 0