Governor Bruce Rauner’s proposed budget supports the Illinois Department of Public Health’s core functions in its entirety.

That’s a message from the IDPH after the acting director spoke in front of a committee Thursday.

IDPH says that Dr. Nirav Shah’s vision for the Department is to focus on the core public health functions such as disease surveillance, screening, response and treatment.

The message says while outreach and education programs are vital, some of those programs have not delivered results in recent years.

Despite millions in proposed budget reductions, IDPH says funding for local health departments, which are the front-line in any outbreak, is maintained in full, as is funding for state laboratory testing.

IDPH says Governor Rauner’s budget does not in anyway compromise the Department’s ability to protect the public from outbreaks or epidemics.