Funding Approved for Dental Education

An appropriations funding bill was approved by President Trump on September 28, increasing funding for several dental education programs. The National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research received $461.7 million — a $14 million increase over last fiscal year, and the Health Resources and Services Administration Oral Health Programs received $40.6 million. The U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Oral Health received $19 million.

The bill includes the U.S. Department of Defense and the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations bills for Fiscal Year 2019. A short-term continuing resolution to temporarily find remaining government program through December 7 was included in the appropriations funding bill. The law increases biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health, expanding opioid abuse treatment and prevention programs, and provides new initiatives for maternal and child health, according to the American Dental Education Association.