AACR, Founding Organizer and Lead Sponsor of the 14th Annual Rally for Medical Research Hill Day, to Advocate for Increase in Federal Funding for NIH
Representatives from more than 400 organizations will join together to urge Congress to support continued progress
WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the founding organizer and lead sponsor of the 14th annual Rally for Medical Research Hill Day taking place today, September 17, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is joining a nationwide coalition of more than 400 organizations to advocate for a robust funding increase for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in fiscal year (FY) 2027 to safeguard the future of lifesaving medical research.
For decades, Republicans and Democrats have united to build NIH into the world’s premier medical research agency. That bipartisan commitment has fueled breakthroughs across every field of health, resulting in increased life expectancy and improved quality of life worldwide. The American public overwhelmingly supports federal funding for medical research. According to a national poll, 96% of voters say federal funding for medical research is important, and nearly two-thirds believe the federal government does not invest enough in medical research.
This year, more than 300 Hill Day participants from across the country will urge Congress to provide at least $51.3 billion for NIH in FY2027 to protect the progress being achieved against the hundreds of diseases that affect millions of Americans, and to accelerate the discoveries that will benefit patients and their families in the years to come. The impact of this investment is widespread and multifaceted. In FY2025, NIH-supported research generated $94.15 billion in economic activity, supported 390,863 jobs nationwide, and produced $2.57 for every $1 invested.
Participants will also thank Congress for taking the important bipartisan step of delaying implementation of the White House Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) extremely concerning proposal regarding how federal grants are awarded and managed. Because this delay expires on December 11, participants will urge Congress to block the proposal in a more permanent manner. If implemented, OMB’s proposal would irreparably damage NIH and medical research in the United States by injecting political considerations into federal research funding decisions; allowing active grants, including those supporting clinical trials, to be terminated for reasons unrelated to recipient performance or scientific merit; and creating profound uncertainty for researchers, institutions, and patients.
“Medical research has changed what is possible for patients. In cancer, decades of federally supported science have altered the course of the disease, and millions of people are living years beyond a diagnosis that once carried a much shorter horizon,” said Keith Flaherty, MD, FAACR, President of AACR. “We are still early in what that understanding can deliver. New technologies and a deeper grasp of cancer biology are opening therapeutic opportunities — in metabolism, epigenetic regulation, the tumor microenvironment — that were not tractable a decade ago. But scientific promise does not become progress on its own. Discovery runs on years of work by a broad community of investigators, and that work requires sustained, robust, and predictable investment in the National Institutes of Health. When we make that commitment, we do more than fund research. We make it possible for the next breakthrough to reach the patients who need it.”
In conjunction with the Hill Day, advocates across the country are participating in the Rally National Day of Action. Partner organizations are encouraging their communities to contact their members of Congress via phone, email, and social media to express their support for federal funding for medical research.
The Rally for Medical Research initiative was launched in April 2013 to bring together the entire medical research community to urge Congress to make NIH funding a national priority. Through the annual Hill Day, the Rally for Medical Research continues to raise awareness about the critical need for continued investment in NIH to improve health, spur progress, inspire hope, and save lives.
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