Whereas, for nearly 60 years, community health centers have provided high-quality, affordable, comprehensive primary and preventive health care in the Nation’s medically underserved communities, delivering value to, and having a significant impact on, America’s health care system;

Whereas, as the Nation’s largest primary care network, community health centers are the health care home for over 32,500,000 Americans in over 16,000 communities across the Nation, and more than 1 in every 10 people in the United States get their care at a community health center;

Whereas community health centers are a critical element of the Nation’s health system, serving rural, suburban, island, frontier, and urban populations, often providing the only accessible and dependable source of primary care in their communities, and nationwide, community health centers serve 1 in every 5 residents of rural areas;

Whereas community health centers are responding to the chronic disease epidemic by expanding access to primary care, which keeps Americans healthy and out of expensive health care settings like hospital emergency rooms;

Whereas community health centers develop new approaches to integrating a wide range of services beyond primary care, including oral health, vision, behavioral health, nutrition, and pharmacy services, to provide comprehensive care, allowing each patient to thrive, and health centers have more than doubled their behavioral health workforce in the last decade to meet Americans’ growing need for behavioral health services;

Whereas community health centers are governed by patient-majority boards, ensuring patients are engaged in their health care decisions;

Whereas community health centers are locally owned and operated small businesses that serve as critical economic engines, helping to power local economies by generating $118,000,000,000 in economic activity;

Whereas community health centers nationally support more than 650,000 direct and indirect jobs, including physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, licensed family therapists, and certified nurse-midwives who work as part of multidisciplinary clinical teams designed to treat the whole patient;

Whereas the community health center model continues to prove an effective means of overcoming barriers to health care access, including geography, income, and insurance status, improving health outcomes and reducing health care system costs;

Whereas community health centers provided more than 3,600,000 cancer screenings in 2023 and helped 65 percent of patients control their hypertension and 71 percent of their patients control their diabetes;

Whereas community health centers are on the front lines of emerging health care crises, providing access to care for the Nation’s veterans, addressing the opioid epidemic, and responding to public health threats in the wake of natural disasters, and community health centers operate over 1,000 mobile units, providing accessible health services in hundreds of rural and urban communities;

Whereas National Health Center Week offers the opportunity to celebrate America’s nearly 1,500 community health center organizations with over 16,000 service delivery sites, including more than 4,100 school-based sites, and the House of Representatives honors their dedicated staff, board members, patients, and all those responsible for their continued success and growth since the first health centers opened their doors nearly 60 years ago; and

Whereas, during National Health Center Week, the House of Representatives celebrates the legacy of America’s community health centers and their vital role in shaping the past, present, and future of America’s health care system: Now, therefore, be it