WASHINGTON – Today, Representative Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ-03) announced $11,924,381 in federal funding, provided in part from the American Rescue Plan, for the Pima County Health Department through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Strengthening U.S. Public Health Infrastructure, Workforce, and Data Systems grant program. The grant program aims to strengthening the public health infrastructure in our nation to help protect people from preventable illness, death, and health threats.

“With a stronger public health infrastructure, Pima County will be able to improve and strengthen public health resiliency systems and networks in southern Arizona,” said Rep. Grijalva. “Since the beginning of the pandemic, I’ve fought so that every community has the people, services, and systems needed to promote and protect health. It was clear that years of disinvestment in our local health authorities left our communities vulnerable – and I called immediately to fix these vulnerabilities through a modernization of our public health departments. I’m pleased to see the action of congressional Democrats coming to bare results in our community. I will continue to advocate for full funding for new initiatives to ensure we’re prepared to appropriately respond to ongoing and emerging health threats.”

This first-of-its-kind funding provides flexible awards directly to state, local, and territorial health departments, to help ensure they have the people, services, and systems they need to promote and protect health in their communities. It includes significant resources that awardees can use to recruit, retain, and train their workforce. More information on the CDC’s Strengthening U.S. Public Health Infrastructure, Workforce, and Data Systems grant can be found here.