Current Actions

Take Action: Ask Your Senators to Support NIH Funding in FY25

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 04:00:00 GMT

As Congress turns their attention to Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, it is critical that human genetics and genomics researchers and clinicians like yourself speak out and share how genetics research is advancing research and saving lives.

The Senate FY25 NIH Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) is now in circulation. “Dear Colleague” letters are correspondence signed by Members of Congress and distributed to their colleagues. Such correspondence is often used by one or more Members to persuade others to cosponsor, support, or oppose a bill. Senators can sign-on to express their support for NIH funding and request that the Senate Appropriations Committee maintain a strong commitment to funding for NIH in the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education FY25 Appropriations bill.

Please take a few minutes to contact your Senators before COB on Wednesday, May 8th via e-mail using the form below, urging them to sign the FY25 NIH DCL and highlighting the exciting advances in human genetics and genomics and the importance of sustained, robust NIH funding.

Take Action: Urge Congress to Pass the FY 2024 NIH Funding Bill

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 04:00:00 GMT

ASHG, along with our other biomedical research advocacy partners, has been actively engaged in communicating to Congress the necessity of robust and predictable investment in the NIH. The Society appreciates the hard work of the Senate and House Appropriations Committees in a constrained budget environment to preserve lifesaving research and new medical discoveries. To ensure that progress in biomedical research can continue uninterrupted, we urge Congress to pass FY 2024 appropriations as quickly as possible and avoid a government shutdown.

If Congress fails to act quickly on these bills and secure appropriations for FY 2024, biomedical research could grind to a halt as NIH and many other parts of the federal government are forced to shut down. ASHG encourages its members to contact their lawmakers to urge them to pass these full-year appropriations bills as soon as possible to ensure NIH can continue its vital work in biomedical research.

Using the template below, take a few minutes to encourage your Members of Congress to pass the legislation before the Friday, March 22 deadline.

Take Action to Support Human Genetics & Genomics Research Funding

Tue, 05 Dec 2023 05:00:00 GMT

ASHG is joining the research community in urging Congress to complete the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 appropriations process and to make NIH funding a national priority.

This is a key time to make your voice heard in support of robust and sustained NIH funding for FY24, and to ask Congress to pass the Senate’s bipartisan $49 billion NIH appropriations bill. In November, Congress passed a continuing resolution (CR) -- a stop-gap funding measure -- that continues some government funding until January 19 and NIH funding through February 2. Appropriators must now negotiate and draft all 12 individual spending bills before the temporary government funding expires. Unless Congress acts quickly and in a bipartisan way to complete the NIH FY2024 spending bill before the February 2 deadline, the NIH will be forced to shut down— halting progress in research and slowing cures. It is critical that human genetics and genomics researchers like yourself speak out and share how these cuts and extended temporary government funding negatively impacts the human genetics and genomics community and stymies the economic benefits and health advances that come from this research.

Please take a few minutes to contact your Members of Congress via email using the form below, highlighting breakthroughs in research, diagnostics and treatment, collaborations around the world, and lives changed for all people due to genetics and genomics research (in your lab, at your institution, or elsewhere) and the importance of sustained, robust NIH funding.

Take Action to Support NIH Funding Increase for FY24

Thu, 11 May 2023 04:00:00 GMT

For Fiscal Year 2024, ASHG is Joining the Research Community in Urging Congress to Provide at Least $51 Billion for NIH.

The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) is holding virtual meetings on Capitol Hill this month to urge Congress to support funding increases for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This is a key time of year for advocacy efforts as Congress is deliberating on funding levels for federal agencies for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 and negotiations over raising the debt limit are threatening cuts to the federal discretionary budget back to FY 2022 levels – a loss of more than $130 billion. This is a great opportunity to participate remotely in ASHG’s advocacy efforts and join in supporting policies that impact the research community.

Please contact your members of Congress via e-mail, highlighting the exciting advances in human genetics and genomics (in your lab, at your institution, or elsewhere) and the importance of sustained, robust NIH funding.