WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley today received the 2007 Distinguished Community Health Champion Award from the National Association of Community Health Centers, Inc.
"As a longtime supporter of our nation's Community Health Centers, it’s an honor to be recognized by an organization that helps provide for primary and preventive health care services in medically under-served areas," Grassley said. "It’s nice to see the many communities in Iowa that have benefited from the federal investment of health centers, and other communities that are working hard to start centers of their own."
The fiscal 2007 spending bill provided funding for health programs, including $1.9 billion for Community Health Centers. The bill included an increase of $207 million from 2006, which will help sustain more than 1,000 federally qualified heath centers and help finance new centers in Iowa and across the country.
Grassley is a co-sponsor of the Health Centers Renewal Act of 2007 that was introduced in the Senate on March 15th. The bill would reauthorize the health centers program for five years and would strengthen and expand health centers to care for nearly 30 million patients.
He is also sending a letter with Senate colleagues to the Appropriations Committee encouraging the members to provide a $200 million increase for Community Health Centers for fiscal 2008.