News from the Hill: February 20, 2026

February concluded on Capitol Hill with the President providing the annual State of the Union address to Congress. There is a great deal of interest in what the White House’s new priorities and proposals will be for 2026, particularly after Congress rebuked last year’s requests from the administration to de-fund research and reorganize public health agencies.

At the end of January, Congress completed work on nearly all the outstanding FY 2026 appropriations bills, including passing the Labor-HHS-Education (L-HHS) measure and the Defense (DoD) measure. The L-HHS bill maintained the status quo across agencies while advancing policy riders to promote non-interference in research and enacting patient care bills that had been languishing while the DoD bill restored funding to the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program. Lawmakers could not reach agreement on the annual bill funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) due to disagreements on oversight of Immigration and Custom Enforcement. Ongoing deliberations to resolve the deadlock (DHS remains “shutdown” at the moment) have waylaid planned work on Senate negotiations to extend expiring healthcare premium tax credits and delayed the release of the administration’s budget request to Congress for FY 2027 until mid-March.

Congress continues to express frustration with the administration and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) over the lack of permanent leadership for most Institutes and Centers. Shortly after these concerns were officially voiced, the administration announced that the NIAMS Director would not be returning, creating another vacancy, and that the NIH Director would start serving as the CDC Administrator too. While single officials sometimes ran multiple agencies during the previous Trump presidential term, the lack of geographic proximity between NIH and CDC allowing with differing missions could prove complicated.

It is important to note though that despite the delayed budget request and late completion of the FY 2026 spending bills Congress has already started its work to craft the Fy 2027 appropriations bills. Advocacy will be needed to secure funding increases and policy guidance for key programs. It is an election year and in addition to having legislators work quickly to finish initial drafts of key bills before campaign season starts this summer, legislators will also be uniquely tuned in to the needs and requests of constituents.

Written by: Dane Christiansen and Kira Flaherty, Washington Representatives (the Health and Medicine Counsel)