Cassidy introduces bill to fund community clinics, citing stalled negotiations with Sanders

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), introduced legislation Thursday to reauthorize funding for community health centers as his office says negotiations with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on this issue aren’t progressing.

Lawmakers are hashing out how to reauthorize the Community Health Center Fund (CHCF) among other key federal health programs. Established by the Affordable Care Act, the CHCF currently accounts for the majority of funding for community health clinics.

Congress is trying to avoid a government shutdown as the Sept. 30 deadline approaches and funding for these programs remains at risk.

Sanders, chair of the HELP committee, is pushing for an enhanced infusion of funding into community health centers, asking for $130 billion of funding for the centers over the next five years as well as $60 billion to help grow the health care workforce.

Cassidy has criticized this figure, saying it’s unlikely to pass. And according to people familiar with the talks, Sanders is not budging on his funding plan.

The bill introduced by Cassidy Thursday would increase annual funding to community health centers from $4 billion to $4.2 billion a year for the next two years. This legislation mirrors a bill introduced in the House that passed through the Energy and Commerce Committee with unanimous bipartisan support in May.

“This bill reflects the overwhelmingly bipartisan legislation passed out of committee in the House,” Cassidy said in a statement. “It is our best chance to avert a funding crisis in the few legislative days we have left before the end of the fiscal year.”

Rachel Gonzales-Hanson, CEO of the National Association of Community Health Centers, signaled support for the bill.

“Health centers need certainty and predictability to plan, and that is why we need Congress to enact bipartisan legislation to extend funding before the September deadline,” she said.

Sanders’s office pushed back on claims that negotiations have stalled, saying it doesn’t agree with and disputes that characterization.

“As every American knows, this country faces a massive and dangerous shortage of doctors, nurses, mental health providers and dentists,” Sanders spokesman Mike Casca said in a statement. “Chairman Sanders will continue working in a bipartisan way to address these crises.”