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As this report is written, the Administration
has just released the proposed Federal
budget for FY 2007. Under the President’s
budget, discretionary spending within
the Department of Health and Human Services
would be cut by 2.3 percent to $67.6 billion.
All Title VII Interdisciplinary, Community-Based
Training Grant Programs would be eliminated,
with the exception of one scholarship
program, which would sustain a 79 percent
cut. The Health Professions and Nursing
Education Coalition has said the elimination
of all Title VII Interdisciplinary, Community-Based
Training Grant Programs would 'decimate'
efforts to train minority health professionals
and hurt the Nation's most vulnerable.
In view of the health challenges presented
by an aging population and the great socio-demographic
changes taking place in our Nation, which
the Title VII Interdisciplinary, Community-Based
Training Grant Programs are designed to
address, the loss of support for these
programs appears short-sighted in the
extreme. The Committee is not unbiased
in its perspective--it is committed to
the promotion of interdisciplinary education
for health care providers. However, the
Committee feels it would be derelict in
its duty if it failed to express its strongest
concern regarding the proposed cuts that
will decimate the Title VII Interdisciplinary,
Community-Based Training Grant Programs.
For the Advisory Committee:
Gordon Green, MD, MPH
Editor, Fifth Report
Thomas Cavalieri, DO, FACOI, FACP
Chairman, Advisory Committee on
Interdisciplinary, Community-Based Linkages
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