A coalition of nearly four dozen top health care advocacy groups is urging House Republicans to oppose any cuts to NIH funding, even as the Trump administration withholds hundreds of millions of dollars in research grants for the agency.
House Republicans released their FY2026 Labor-HHS spending proposal Monday night ahead of a scheduled subcommittee markup in the House Appropriations Committee today. It calls for a small overall cut to NIH spending, roughly $465 million below last year’s level. That’s less than a 1% reduction in NIH’s nearly $48 billion budget.
Most of the proposed GOP cuts for NIH would come at ARPA-H (the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health), which is charged with exploring “long-shot cures” for diseases. The House Republicans’ plan would slash the ARPA-H budget by $555 million, nearly one-third. The agency was created under former President Joe Biden in 2022.
House Democrats hammered the GOP proposal, calling it part of a broader Republican attack on medical research.
“Republicans are proposing cutting funding for the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. “This bill is an attack on the programs and services that Americans depend on at every stage of their life.”
United for Cures, a coalition of advocacy groups, is calling on House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) and Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), cardinal for the Labor-HHS subcommittee, to reject any NIH research cuts.
“Continued public investment in research for cures is critical to advancing prevention, early detection, developing innovative treatments, and finding life-saving cures. We know that more than 2/3 of all Americans oppose reductions to medical research funding, and we urge you to hold strong against cuts,” the groups said in a letter obtained by Punchbowl News.
United for Cures is made up of a number of top advocacy groups, including the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, Diabetes Leadership Council, Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, National Health Council and more.
We expect a full House Appropriations Committee markup of the Labor-HHS bill as early as Thursday.
