The House passed the final, remaining Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 appropriations bills, including the bills for Labor-HHS-Education (L-HHS) and the Department of Defense (DoD). The Senate is expected to take the outstanding spending bills up before the current Continuing Resolution (CR) funding the federal government expires on January 30. Thus far, all spending bills have been crafted and advanced in a strong bipartisan fashion, and if lawmakers can complete the process, they will enact meaningful funding for federal agencies along with strong policy riders intended to preserve the integrity of the research process.

Of particular interest to the Coalition for Clinical and Translational Science, the final FY 2026 spending bills provide: 

DoD

• Restoration of full funding (about $1.2 billion annually) for the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program, including restored funds and adopted eligible condition lists for the Peer-Reviewed Medical Research program and the Peer-Reviewed Cancer Research Program.

L-HHS

• A modest $400 million increase for the National Institutes of Health and medical research (for a budget that is roughly $47 billion annually).
• A modest $100 million cut for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and public health (for a budget that is roughly $9 billion annually).
• Maintenance of funding for the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and other public health programs with clear guidance that the administration cannot to take any reorganization action.
• Continued inclusion of the CTSA line-item and $629.56 million for CTSAs along with adoption of all report language from the House and Senate, including Senate instructions regarding ongoing support for CTSA hubs. N3C is also provided with a $4 million funding increase.
• A $20 million funding increase for the Institutional Development Awards program.
• New policy riders seeking to preserve the integrity of the medical research process by placing restrictions on changes the administration would like to make that could jeopardize ongoing and emerging research projects, by protecting the current indirect cost policy, placing guardrails on the use of multi-year funding, and seeking a plan from the administration to ensure permanent leadership across NIH Institutes and Centers.

Once the FY 2026 appropriations process is completed, Congress is expected to begin work on federal funding for FY 2027 and additional advocacy will be needed to ensure further progress on key priorities.

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