Since 1995, the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Prevention and Control of Emerging Infectious Diseases (ELC) Cooperative Agreement has been critical to U.S. health departments’ ability to combat infectious diseases. While beginning with only 10 recipients, that number incrementally grew, reaching the current complement of 64 jurisdictions in 2012. For a quarter-century, the ELC cooperative agreement has provided hundreds of millions each year to all 50 states, several large local health departments, and U.S. territories and affiliates to detect, respond to, control, and prevent infectious dis