Federal Global Health Funding Levels for Fiscal Year 2025

The U.S. House Appropriations Committee’s Fiscal Year 2025 funding package maintains stable support for global health initiatives housed within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). While the State Department manages the bulk of U.S. global health investments, this legislation provides critical resources for infectious disease research, pandemic preparedness, and technical health security, keeping most program budgets flat compared to 2024 enacted levels.

CDC Global Health Funding Allocations

The House appropriations bill allocates $693 million for global health programs at the CDC, mirroring the funding levels established in the previous fiscal year. According to the KFF global health budget tracker, this figure maintains existing commitments to polio eradication and global public health protection. To improve operational efficiency, the committee consolidated several programs—including global HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and vaccine-preventable disease initiatives—into a single budget line titled “Global Emerging Infectious Diseases.”

The committee’s report mandates closer oversight of these expenditures. Lawmakers directed the CDC to coordinate extensively with the State Department’s Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy, particularly regarding the implementation of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Furthermore, the CDC must brief the committee within 90 days of the bill’s enactment on its current global workforce capacity, overseas staffing footprint, and strategic plans for bolstering health security.

NIH Research and Global Health Priorities

Research activities at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) remain a primary focus for long-term health security. The House bill provides $95 million for the Fogarty International Center (FIC), which sustains funding at the 2024 enacted level. The FIC serves as the primary hub for NIH global health research, facilitating international partnerships that study emerging pathogens and chronic disease burdens in low-resource settings.

While the bill specifies these amounts, it notes that funding for broader global HIV/AIDS and malaria research remains subject to internal agency-level determinations rather than specific congressional line-item designations. This provides the NIH with the flexibility to pivot resources as new epidemiological data emerges.

How This Funding Compares to Prior Years

The current appropriations process reflects a trend of fiscal austerity regarding discretionary global health spending. By maintaining flat funding, the House bill avoids the programmatic cuts proposed in some earlier budget cycles but does not account for inflationary pressures on medical research and overseas staffing costs.

Why Global Health Security Matters

The emphasis on the “Global Emerging Infectious Diseases” line reflects a shift in congressional priorities toward rapid response capabilities. By directing the CDC to prioritize in-country health security capacities, the committee aims to strengthen the global “early warning” system for zoonotic outbreaks. According to the CDC’s Global Health Security division, these investments are essential to stop outbreaks at their source, preventing local epidemics from evolving into international health emergencies that threaten domestic stability.

As the appropriations process continues, the final budget will depend on negotiations between the House and Senate. Stakeholders expect that the directive for the CDC to provide a detailed briefing on its workforce capacity will be a major point of discussion in the coming months, as lawmakers assess whether current staffing levels are sufficient to manage the increasing complexity of global health threats.