Committee weighs cuts to tobacco prevention, local public‑health support and a statewide infant‑mortality review

Members of the committee pressed the Department of Health and Senior Services about proposed reductions to prevention programs and local public health support that department leaders said could curtail services and statewide initiatives.

Division director Laurie Brennecke told lawmakers the governor’s recommended budget fully reduces certain youth tobacco prevention cores and trims tobacco cessation funding. "You were correct about the statistics about tobacco being the number 1 preventative cause for chronic disease and death," Brennecke said when asked about the programmatic importance of those lines. Representative Black noted long‑standing concerns that tobacco settlement funds have been infrequently used for prevention and asked whether the cuts would further reduce tobacco‑related prevention activities.

Brennecke also described a statewide fetal and infant mortality review the department began implementing this January. The program uses regional contractors and an evidence‑based review model to analyze fetal deaths from 20 weeks gestation through infants up to one year and to recommend policy or community interventions based on aggregated findings. She warned that the proposed reduction to that core would "not allow us to do the statewide review" and could force prioritization by region, with urban areas such as St. Louis and Kansas City carrying higher case ratios.

Lawmakers asked for more detail on local public health agency (LPHA) support and pointed to recurring unexpended federal and GR authority. Brennecke said some unspent GR in prior years reflected incentive funds that local agencies could elect to claim and that the department is forming a workgroup to improve utilization and reduce leftover authority.

The committee also heard from the state public health laboratory about work to expand cannabis reference testing and a new decision item to fund a statewide courier contract necessary to transport roughly 100,000 specimens to the laboratory annually and ensure timely results.