CCTS Newsletter Copy
By: Dane Christiansen and Kira Flaherty, Washington Representatives
May 22, 2026
May featured House appropriators advancing an aggressive schedule to markup the twelve annual appropriations bills for FY 2027, including scheduled mid-June consideration of the Labor-HHS-Education measure. The Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies (MilCon-VA) appropriations bill, traditionally the most bipartisan and broadly supported measure, was passed by the House early on but included a notable proposed cut for the VA Medical and Prosthetic Research Program. Subsequent spending bills have included further proposed funding cuts (though rejected the most significant reductions and continue to resist agency reorganization proposals from the administration). More-recent spending bills in the House have also met near immediate partisan headwinds leading to almost exclusively party-line votes on all measures considered thus far.
The Senate traditionally advances its spending measures about a month after the House and this year is no exception. Senate appropriators have indicated an interest in marking up their Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill before the end of June. Further, the Senate has indicated its preference for an ongoing bipartisan process and sustained funding increases for medical research programs across the board. Recently, the NIH Director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee and faced tough questioning from both sides of the aisle about the administration’s budget request and proposed NIH cuts along with the need to fill Institute and Center leadership positions and distribute meritorious funding in a timely manner. Director Bhattacharya did his best to reassure skeptical lawmakers that portfolios are in good hands and its business as usual, but the Senate appears poised to take further action to ensure appropriated research funding makes its way to investigators and academic institutions in a timely and traditional fashion.
Campaign season and election year politics collided at the end of May and upended legislative plans on Capitol Hill. Recently, numerous Republicans lost their primaries to White House-backed challengers, including Senate HELP Committee Chair, Dr. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), and Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY). The election results had an almost immediate impact in Congress as the Senate was forced to pull a White House-backed immigration funding bill due to a lack of Republican support needed for passage as the House pulled a vote on administration war powers for the conflict with Iran after it became apparent that enough Republicans would side with Democrats to easily pass the measure. Having Senator Cassidy as a lame duck legislator will further complicate efforts to confirm new leaders, including at HHS agencies, and will certainly impact the overall trajectory of numerous healthcare legislative items.
Recently, leadership from the Coalition for Clinical and Translational Science and grassroots community advocates from key states met with lawmakers to advocate for community funding priorities and enhanced research integrity provisions. These meetings included presenting 2026 awards to community research funding champions on Capitol Hill, namely Senator Katie Britt (R-AL), Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Congressman Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ), and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT). During this uncertain time, it remains important to make your voice heard and we encourage you to join community efforts to advocate! [link to the call to action and include photos from Hill Day]