May 12, 2025
The US President’s proposed budget for next year includes sweeping cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the elimination of vital global and minority health research programs.
These cuts represent an effort to extend legally challenged cuts made by executive order earlier this year, and to codify them into law with congressional approval. If successful, they will result in the drastic cut of US federal investments in global health research, development and delivery.
This initial “skinny budget”, introduced by the President, is a proposal and not yet law. A more detailed version will be released by mid-to-late May and the US Congress will ultimately decide funding levels for Fiscal Year 2026, which begins October 1. So, advocates must speak up now to protect funding for research and programming that saves lives and livelihoods. Read on for resources to support your advocacy.
- PxPulse Live: Critical Advocacy—How Civil Society is defending the HIV Response and Global Health, AVAC’s newest podcast episode maps out connections to economic justice and explores where advocacy must focus now. Featuring Asia Russell of Health Gap and Amanda Banda of the COMPASS Coalition in conversation with AVAC’s Director of Communications Kenyon Farrow.
- Advocates’ Guide: Understanding the FY26 Proposed Budget and Its Implications for Research and Global Health, AVAC’s Advocates’ Guide provides a snapshot of the impact of these cuts on biomedical research and programs that support health and development, and frames priorities for advocacy.
- Worldwide Prevention, Shared Protection: Why STI Funding Matters, AVAC’s brief on cuts to vaccine development for sexually transmitted infections and the broader STI landscape of research, testing and prevention in the US and globally.
- Science in the Crosshairs: Research Advocacy in a Time of Crisis, The Choice Agenda webinar exploring what these attacks mean for communities, researchers, and implementers. The conversation covers actionable advocacy strategies for fighting back. Moderated by Matthew Rose from the Human Rights Campaign, and features Sybil Hosek from University of Illinois – Chicago, Riko Boone and Lizzy Lovinger from TAG, John Meade from AVAC, and Nyaradzo Mgodi from University of Zimbabwe Clinical Trials Research Centre.
- Research Matters: Resources to Protect Research Funding, AVAC, TAG and the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) co-created a new resource hub, Research Matters, to support researchers advocating for sustained NIH funding. These tools include an Advocacy Toolkit to help move our collective efforts forward. Please share this link with any researchers who have received NIH funding—we will continue to update the hub with resources to support continued advocacy for biomedical research.
- AVAC and partners are collecting stories of impact—if you know someone willing to share their story about how NIH cuts are affecting their work, contact John Meade Jr. at [email protected]. This Huffington Post piece by Katie Edwards at the University of Michigan is a terrific example of a researcher sharing the real-world toll on scientists, trial participants, communities, research and public health.
Thank you for standing with us to protect science, health, and progress.