Months after the end of the last fiscal year, Congress has not come to an agreement on funding for federal agencies in Fiscal Year 2022. This means federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF), are operating under a continuing resolution (CR), a temporary extension of last year’s funding levels. CRs, providing stagnant funding across the board, are incredibly damaging to our nation’s biomedical and scientific research efforts. If Congress fails to come to an agreement on FY 2022 appropriations before the current CR expires on February 18th, the impact on brain health research could be devastating.
FY 2022 appropriations legislation that provides critical increases for NIH (including the BRAIN Initiative), NSF, and the VA Medical and Prosthetics Research Program passed the House of Representatives and was introduced in the Senate last year. Separately, an agreement has been reached on defense spending that should support the continuation of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP). Negotiations have since stalled. Unless Congress comes to an agreement on full-year funding, research agencies face the threat of a shutdown or a year-long CR, which could result in delayed discoveries and missed research opportunities.
Click here to contact your federal legislators and encourage them to support a final FY 2022 appropriations package that includes at least $49.4 billion for NIH, $640 million for the BRAIN Initiative, $10 billion for NSF, and $904 million for the VA Medical and Prosthetic Research Program, as well as the continuation of the CDMRP. Simply add your contact info and customize the prewritten letter to your legislator - it takes less than five minutes.