The Will County Board voted to adopt updated federal legislative recommendations submitted by the county health department for its 2026 federal agenda, including funding priorities the department said are needed to sustain communicable-disease capacity, the 340B pharmaceutical safety-net program, and measures to expand the behavioral-health workforce.

Health department representatives asked the board to support measures that would preserve or restore federal funding streams that helped build local public-health and clinical capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that would maintain access to discounted pharmaceuticals for uninsured and underinsured patients through programs commonly referred to as 340B. The department also asked the board to back proposals to make mental-health and substance-use services more broadly reimbursable by Medicaid and to expand the peer-support workforce by allowing younger entrants and increasing workforce development funding.

Board members asked detailed operational questions about those items. One asked how 340B services operate locally; the health department said community pharmacies participate and that a pharmacy rents space from the county health center (the presenter said the pharmacy’s rent was about $800/month and that the county does not fund those discounted pharmaceuticals directly). Members also discussed Medicaid coverage for seniors and newly arrived immigrants; health department staff said the federally qualified health center (FQHC) that receives HRSA funding does not collect immigration status data and that the department’s ask is to restore Medicaid coverage that state action had reduced for some populations.

On behavioral health, the health department urged the board to support measures to grow the peer-support workforce and funding for mental-health and substance-use treatment, including wraparound services such as transportation and housing supports that the department said support recovery. The board also voted to include workforce, Sunny Hill (the county nursing home) and the Children’s Advocacy Center (support for the VOCA Fix/H.R. 909) language in the federal agenda; the Children’s Advocacy Center language specifically urged support for H.R. 909 to sustain VOCA funding.

How the board voted: committee members indicated support during the meeting for the health department section as presented; subsequent specific votes recorded in the meeting minutes show separate approvals for workforce language, Sunny Hill language (with a small wording amendment to focus on “residents at Sunny Hill Nursing Home”), and unanimous support for a request backing H.R. 909 (VOCA Fix). The health-department package was presented as a consolidated set of federal priorities; board members asked staff to produce a concise version the lobbyist can use.

What the county asked for: among other items, the department’s support language included calls to maintain communicable-disease workforce funding (post-ARPA), preserve 340B discounts and FQHC support, reauthorize or protect workforce-development funding under WIOA, expand behavioral-health workforce pathways (including peer supports) and protect mental-health and substance-use service funding and parity in Medicaid reimbursement.

Ending: County staff and lobbyists said they would use the approved agenda language to brief Will County’s federal advocates and to develop concise materials for legislators and staff.