On July 31, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, by a vote of 26-3, approved its Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education bill. The bill is a rebuke of many of the cuts that the Trump Administration had requested in its FY 2026 budget, with the Committee recommending a one percent increase to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) instead of the 40 percent cut recommended by the Administration. An even more positive development is the inclusion of language in a report accompanying the bill, praising population research programs at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (see below).
The great news coming out of yesterday’s Senate committee markup demonstrates that our advocacy efforts are working, and members of Congress are responding. There are still other legislative hurdles that the bill (as well as other FY 2026 appropriations bills) must go through before becoming law though, including consideration on the Senate floor. Furthermore, the U.S. House of Representatives is not expected to take action on its version of the FY 2026 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill until lawmakers return to Washington in September. PAA, with your help, will continue to urge Congress to work with the Administration to ensure all of our priority federal scientific research and statistical agencies receive robust funding in FY 2026.
PAA is very grateful to the leaders of the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Subcommittee, Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-WA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and their staffs for their hard work on producing such a thoughtful, fair spending bill –especially during these challenging times. In addition, PAA appreciates the bipartisan leadership that the full committee chairs, Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) and Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), have effectively demonstrated working together to advance all FY 2026 appropriations bills.
FY 2026 Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Appropriations bill highlights:
National Institutes of Health
- Recommends $48.7B for NIH (+ $400 million over Fiscal Year 2025).
- Prohibits the administration from imposing a 15% cap on F&A rates.
- Requires the administration to provide a 180-day written notice of any plans to restructure/reorganize NIH.
- Allocates funding for all of the current 27 NIH institutes/centers.
- Places restrictions on NIH's ability to forward fund grants.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
- $345 million
- Slightly below FY 2025 funding level, but the Administration had recommended eliminating AHRQ altogether and moving to proposed HHS Office of Strategy.
National Center for Health Statistics
- $187.3 million
- Same funding level as FY 2025
- Does not move NCHS from Centers from Disease Control into proposed HHS Office of Strategy.
Institute for Education Sciences
- $793.1 million
- Same funding level as FY 2025
- Provides $121.5 million for National Center for Education Statistics
Bureau of Labor Statistics
- $703.9 million
- Same funding level as FY 2025
- Includes language praising implementation of new NLSY27 cohort
NIH Population Research Report Language
National Institute on Aging
Population Research—The Committee commends NIA for sup porting a robust population aging research portfolio that includes research grants, centers, networks, training programs, and population representative longitudinal surveys, including the Health and Retirement Study and National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, studying how demographic, social, environ mental, behavioral, psychological, and economic factors impact health and well-being over the life course. In fiscal year 2025, the Committee is pleased to learn that NIA plans to renew funding for its Centers on Demography and Economics of Aging program. The current 15 centers provide essential infrastructure and data, stimulating aging research and training activities on topics such as physical and cognitive functioning, disability, health disparities, and Alzheimer’s disease, nationwide. The Committee urges NIA to continue to encourage collaboration among its centers, as it currently does via the Research Centers Collaborative Network [RCCN]. RCCN aligns approaches between NIA Center programs, including the Centers on Demography and Economics of Aging, Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers, and Roybal Centers for Translational Research in the Behavioral and Social Sciences of Aging.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Population Research—The Committee commends NICHD for supporting prospective, population representative longitudinal studies, including the Panel Study of Income Dynamics Child Development Supplement, Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, and National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Data from these studies are public goods used widely to inform research and training activities conducted by thousands of scientists at universities nationwide, including underserved institutions, and are heavily used by new and early-stage investigators. In addition, these studies are the only nationally representative data scientists may use to analyze, for example, how parental and grandparental characteristics affect children’s outcomes and the impact of adverse childhood experiences over the life course. NICHD is encouraged to continue supporting this type of research.