AACR Commends Senate Republican Support for NIH and Calls for Continued Bipartisan Commitment to Lifesaving Research

PHILADELPHIA – The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) commends Senator Katie Britt (R-AL) and her 13 Republican colleagues for calling on the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to immediately disburse FY2025 funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Their recent letter is a powerful reaffirmation that medical research must remain a national priority, rooted in bipartisan support, scientific excellence, and the urgent needs of patients and families. It also comes at a time of growing concern about the stability of the NIH funding process.

This week’s abrupt pause in NIH grant funding, ordered by OMB and quickly reversed, was not an isolated event. It marked the most visible escalation in a pattern of instability that has intensified in recent months. The biomedical research community has been navigating prolonged uncertainty, with delayed grant reviews, stalled disbursements, disrupted clinical trials, and scientists across the country unable to plan or proceed with their work. Institutions are being forced to decide whether to move forward with studies that have already been peer-reviewed, scored, and approved, despite having no assurance that funding will be released. These are not routine administrative challenges. They are decisions with life-or-death consequences for patients and serious implications for the future of scientific progress.

While the immediate pause has been lifted, the underlying threats to research remain unresolved. The administration’s proposed 40% cut to NIH for FY2026, combined with its effort to impose a “forward funding” model, would sharply reduce the number of new grants NIH can issue. By requiring the full cost of multiyear awards to be drawn from a single year’s budget, this approach would constrain research capacity, limit opportunities for investigators nationwide, and delay advances that could extend and save lives. These policy shifts threaten not only the flow of funding, but also the long-term strength and sustainability of the research enterprise. At a time of extraordinary scientific promise, we must uphold the bipartisan commitment that has fueled decades of progress. Anything less risks unraveling the foundation of medical discovery and weakening our ability to deliver new treatments to those who need them most.

AACR thanks Senator Britt and her colleagues for standing up at a pivotal moment. As the Senate Appropriations Committee meets today to consider the FY2026 Labor-HHS-Education spending bill, we urge lawmakers to continue their leadership by providing robust, predictable, and sustained funding for NIH. The future of American science and the lives of patients depend on it.