Sponsors (67)
The bill focuses federal resources on improving vaccination for pregnant and postpartum people (including reducing racial/ethnic disparities) and provides modest additional funding, while creating a small taxpayer cost, potential diversion of CDC resources from other vaccine outreach, and modest implementation burdens for providers and public health systems.
Pregnant and postpartum people—especially racial and ethnic minorities—will receive targeted vaccine outreach and education, increasing maternal and infant vaccination rates and reducing disparities.
Obstetric providers (hospitals, clinics) will receive vaccine communications and tools, helping clinicians better counsel patients and likely increasing provider-driven vaccination among pregnant/postpartum patients.
State and local public health programs will receive increased annual funding ($7M vs $5M for FY2027–2031), providing more resources for outreach and program activities.
Narrowing outreach priority to pregnant and postpartum populations may divert CDC staff time and resources away from other vaccine communication efforts, potentially weakening broader vaccination outreach.
Taxpayers will fund an additional $2 million per year for FY2027–2031 compared with the prior statutory level.
Hospitals and state public health systems may face modest administrative burden to implement and track the new targeted communications and reporting requirements.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Expands federal vaccine outreach to pregnant and postpartum people (and their children), adds obstetric providers, authorizes equity-focused activities, and raises annual funding to $7M for FY2027–2031.
Official title: To amend the Public Health Service Act with respect to maternal vaccination awareness and equity, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 27, 2026 by Terri Sewell · Last progress March 27, 2026
Expands federal vaccine awareness and outreach to explicitly include pregnant and postpartum people and their children, adds obstetric providers to the list of targeted health professionals, authorizes activities focused on increasing maternal and postpartum vaccination (including outreach to racial and ethnic minority groups), and raises the program's annual funding from $5 million to $7 million for FY2027–2031. The changes amend existing Public Health Service Act authorities to broaden the audience, allow focused equity-related activities, and extend/raise the statutory funding level for future fiscal years.