Research!America Statement in Response to the End of the Government Shutdown
Arlington, VA – As the government shutdown ends with a new Jan. 30 deadline for final action on nine of the 12 annual federal appropriations bills for FY26, Research!America urges Congress to complete the appropriations process as soon as possible. Based on the more than three decades of national public opinion surveys that Research!America has commissioned, we know Americans want our nation to set the pace for medical and health progress; not block our own path.
We hope the end of the shutdown ushers in a period of rapid bipartisan action to complete the FY26 appropriations process. We urge Congress to pass a Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) bill that provides a minimum increase of $400 million to the National Institutes of Health, allocates $1.5 billion for ARPA-H, and prevents reductions in both indirect cost reimbursement and the number of grants NIH awards each year.
Further, we urge appropriators to bolster funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in the final Labor-HHS bill. We are deeply concerned by the continued – and proposed – underfunding of the CDC and AHRQ. Both agencies work behind the scenes every day to meet the health needs of Americans in communities across the country, whether by confronting disease outbreaks or equipping health care providers to deliver the right care, saving lives and dollars in the process.
Finally, we urge Congress to work on a bipartisan basis to pass the host of other pending health legislation – from reauthorizing the rare pediatric disease priority review voucher program, to ensuring patients benefit as quickly as possible from progress that leads to safe, effective, and innovative medical technologies, such as multi-cancer diagnostics. Unnecessary delays needlessly cost lives.
It is time to shift into high gear, propelling medical progress and maximizing its positive impact on health.
Contact Katherine Broendel, Director of Communications, at 571-482-2719 or [email protected] with press inquiries.