When Data Speaks
World Immunization Week begins tomorrow, April 24. A national public opinion poll we commissioned earlier this year found that 78% of Americans are confident in the safety of vaccines used today, a four-point increase over last year’s survey. Additionally, 86% of Americans agree that childhood vaccines protect communities from outbreaks of disease. Finally, while 45% of Americans say they worry that not all childhood vaccines are necessary, that number represents a four-point decrease from last year’s findings.
Don’t miss these and other compelling findings in our latest public opinion poll here.
Appropriations Update: House Republicans advanced the FY27 appropriations process this week by releasing funding allocations for six out of 12 spending bills. These allocations, known as 302(b) levels, set the topline funding that each appropriations subcommittee uses to develop its bill. The Agriculture–FDA and Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) bills, which fund FDA and the NSF, respectively, are included in the released allocations. This first group of allocations does not include the Labor-HHS bill, which funds NIH, CDC, and other key health agencies.
The House is moving quickly through the appropriations process, with the FY27 Agriculture–FDA bill both released and marked up this week. The bill includes a small funding increase over FY26, nominally different but comparable to the president’s budget request.
Senate Public Witness Testimony: The Senate Appropriations Labor-HHS Subcommittee has released instructions for written Outside Witness Testimony for FY27, with submissions due by COB on May 22. Providing public witness testimony is an important opportunity to weigh in directly with appropriators on funding priorities for NIH, CDC, and other vital health agencies. Read Research!America’s submitted testimony to the Senate Labor-HHS Subcommittee and check out our Preparing Written Testimony 101 primer for tips if you’re planning to submit your own. (And I certainly hope you are!)
We are closely tracking developments as both the House and Senate appropriations processes move forward and will keep you informed. To refamiliarize yourself with how the appropriations process works, check out this appropriations overview from the Congressional Research Service.
Updated Data and Analysis on NIH and NSF Funding:
I look forward to digging into three important sources of NIH and NSF data and analysis:
- The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has updated its tracker of NIH extramural funding.
- ScienceSpending.org provides similar tracking for NSF and several other science agencies.
- The Science and Community Mapping Project has released two reports, one showing the estimated loss in economic activity and jobs if the NSF budget cut included in the president’s budget proposal became law, and the other showing the same types of impacts for the proposed NIH budget cut.
Data and analyses like these have been, and will be, critical to effective science advocacy.
New CMS/FDA Collaboration: Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and FDA announced a new joint project, the RAPID coverage pathway. This new pathway, which focuses on medical devices that represent a significant step forward in medical progress, aims to align regulatory review and coverage decisions earlier in the development process. There has long been bipartisan interest in ensuring time saved at FDA carries over to coverage decisions so that as many patients as possible benefit from new medical discoveries.
Special FDA Discussion – Advancing Rare Disease Treatments: Please join us on Zoom next Thursday, April 30, at noon ET for a special webinar with Amy Comstock Rick, Associate Director for Rare Disease Strategy at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) and Director of Strategic Coalitions for the Rare Disease Innovation Hub at FDA. Amy, an emeritus board member of Research!America, will discuss FDA’s work to advance treatments for people living with rare diseases. This webinar is open to the public. Register here.
We Want Your Input: Help shape future alliance member discussions! Take our quick two-minute survey to tell us which topics would be most useful in your policy and advocacy work.
New Board Members Elected at Annual Meeting: Earlier today, we hosted our Annual Meeting, where members of Research!America heard from keynote speaker, National Cancer Institute Director Anthony Letai, M.D., Ph.D., and elected six new leaders to our distinguished Board of Directors. The newly elected board members are: Brett Giroir, M.D.; Raj Panjabi, M.D.; Dipen Parekh, M.D.; Joanne Pike, Dr.P.H.; Megan Ranney, M.D., MPH; and Brandon Staglin, M.S. You can read more about these individuals in our press release. Please join me in welcoming them to the Research!America team!
2025 Annual Report: Last year was a turbulent one for medical and health research, but our commitment to advocating for science never wavered. From pushing back against funding threats to elevating researchers’ voices and equipping advocates, Research!America kept science visible. To fully reflect our accomplishments, we have published our 2025 Annual Report, illustrating how, working together with you, we encouraged congressional champions to stand up for research in FY26. With your continued advocacy and partnership, we will get our nation’s commitment to science back on track.