1. United States
2. Va.
3. Letter

As your constituent, I urge you to act today to ensure the FY26 budget fully funds CDC’s National Wastewater Surveillance System. This system actively detects and passively screens for infectious diseases in the community, previously funded at $125 million a year. This has clearly become an imperative program that provides early detection of infectious diseases such as SARS-CoV-2,, measles, polio, Mpox, RSV, influenza, and avian flu. The Trump administration proposes cutting the annual budget to $25 million, which will severely weaken and nearly destroy an invaluable public health infrastructure for monitoring the spread of infectious diseases. Although established only a few years ago, wastewater surveillance is now a major tool in public health infrastructure. As an early detection system, its findings alert public health officials to the need to act quickly to protect the health of the American people from infectious diseases.