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The PAA Office of Government Affairs has issued an action alert in response to proposed funding cuts to NIH and NSF. Take action here.

Background

On May 30, the Trump Administration began releasing more, albeit incomplete, details regarding federal agencies’ budget requests for Fiscal Year 2026. 
 

Needless to say, the President’s request, especially for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF), is alarmingly low. The President’s request recommends NIH receive $27.5 billion, which is approximately an $18 billion cut or 41 percent below the agency’s FY 2025 funding level. The National Science Foundation (NSF) is slated to receive $3.9 billion in FY 2026, which represents a 57 percent or $5.2 billion cut to their budget as compared to its FY 2025 funding level. 
 
In addition to recommending drastic reductions in the NIH and NSF budgets in FY 2026, the President’s budget also proposes several major agency restructuring proposals. Most notably, at the NIH, the budget proposes combining the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) with the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders to create a new National Institute for Child and Women’s Health, Sensory Disorders, and Communication. 
 
Another major item in the President’s request for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) would merge the BLS, Census Bureau, and Bureau of Economic Analysis at the Department of Commerce, under the policy direction of the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs and move the National Center for Health Statistics out of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention into a newly proposed Department of Health and Human Services Office of Strategy. 
 
PAA strongly opposes the President’s proposed FY 2026 NIH and NSF spending levels. Further, while PAA is open to federal agencies being potentially restructured, we believe these very consequential administrative changes should not occur without relevant congressional oversight committees holding hearings and passing necessary legislation. Affected stakeholders should also have an opportunity to comment on the implications of these reorganization proposals.
 
Congress will consider the President’s FY 2026 budget request over the ensuring summer months as the House and Senate Appropriations Committees negotiate and draft the 12 Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations bills that fund all federal agencies before sending them to the President to be enacted into law.

 
We now need your help!

Please send a message to your U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative urging them to reject the Administration’s proposed FY 2026 funding levels for the NIH and NSF and to postpone action on any agency reorganization proposals until congressional oversight committees and stakeholders have had opportunities to consider their fiscal, operational, and administrative implications, especially at the NIH. 
 
You may send the message as drafted or edit the alert to share additional personal views about how funding cuts of this magnitude would adversely affect your research, students, colleagues, and/or institutions. If you make changes, we recommend keeping your comments brief. Take action here.

 
Thank you for considering this opportunity to take action and advocate for population research!