AACR Calls on Congress to Once Again Summarily Reject the President’s Budget Proposal for NIH

The President’s FY2027 budget proposal includes devastating cuts of nearly $6 billion, or 12%, to NIH’s budget for lifesaving research

The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is calling on Congress to stand up in unified opposition to the President’s fiscal year (FY) 2027 budget request for the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The Administration’s budget request, released today, proposes a 12% reduction to the NIH budget. For the patients, researchers, and families who depend on the medical progress that NIH makes possible, this proposal would narrow the range of scientific questions that can be pursued, slow the pace of discovery, and delay the development of new treatments that patients urgently need.

When the Administration proposed cutting the NIH budget by 40% last year, Congress responded with resolve and with purpose. On a bipartisan basis, lawmakers provided NIH with $48.7 billion for FY2026, a $415 million increase over the prior year, sending a clear signal that medical research remains a national priority.

The longstanding commitment of our nation’s policymakers on Capitol Hill to sustaining strong support for NIH is making a difference, as demonstrated in the progress that has been made against cancer over the past several decades. Today, more than 18 million Americans are cancer survivors, and the five-year survival rate across all cancers has risen from roughly 50% in the early 1970s to approximately 70% today. The overall cancer mortality rate has declined by 34% since 1991, reflecting advances in cancer prevention, early detection, and more effective treatments made possible through sustained federal investments. For patients facing a cancer diagnosis and their families, scientific breakthroughs, made possible through the work of NIH, mean more hope and, often, more time together.

The American people have also made their priorities clear. An AACR survey conducted last fall found that 89% of voters favor federal funding for medical research and that 83% favor increasing federal funding for cancer research. Last year, Congress heard and acted on that message.

The cancer research community was tremendously grateful to the leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, and to every member who stood up for patients and for science, for their support of NIH in FY2026. This year, AACR urges appropriators in both chambers to once again support a robust funding increase for NIH—thereby supporting the patients who are awaiting new treatments and the researchers and physician-scientists who are working every day to drive many of the discoveries that underpin today’s advances in cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. The history of progress against cancer is a bipartisan achievement. So is the responsibility to protect it.