Congress quietly renews dental health funding for five more years
S. 4008 — Promoting Dental Health Act · Filed by Richard Durbin (D-IL) · Introduced Mar 5, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill extends federal funding for oral health promotion and disease prevention programs under the Public Health Service Act for five years (2027–2031), replacing the previous authorization period (2001–2005 and 2010–2014). It is a routine reauthorization that keeps existing dental health programs operating without changing their scope or structure.
Why we flagged it
This is a straightforward extension of existing federal oral health programs. It contains no policy innovation, no new restrictions, and no private carve-outs — only a renewal of authorization years to prevent program lapse.
Who it affects
Reauthorization maintains federal support for oral health promotion and disease prevention programs that serve the public. Allowing these programs to lapse would eliminate federal funding; extending them preserves public health infrastructure.
Named in the bill
Public Health Service Act, Section 317M, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Where it stands
- Mar 5, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Mar 5, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. (text: CR S887)”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
3 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Mar 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $483,572 in lobbying spend. A filing names 7 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 61% of bills with at least one filing.
Richard Durbin, the sponsor, reported $-29,800 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Dental Association — $243,780 on 1 filing
- American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons — $190,000 on 1 filing
- Assn. of State and Territorial Health Officials — $49,792 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (340 characters) on Jul 5, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Mar 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
- S. 4008 on Congress.gov
- Actions and status history
- Bill text the analysis read
- American Dental Association — LDA filing, 2026 Q1
- American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons — LDA filing, 2026 Q2
- Assn. of State and Territorial Health Officials — LDA filing, 2026 Q1
- Richard Durbin — FEC candidate receipts, 2026 cycle
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