FY 2026 CDC Funding Proposals Advance in Congress

While the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education recently approved its FY 2026 funding bill that rejected the president’s proposed elimination of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (Injury Center), the bill approved by the Subcommittee zeroes out the Injury Center’s Firearm Injury and Mortality Prevention Research program.

The program provides critical funding to support the field of firearm injury prevention research, and SAVIR is partnering with the Safe States Alliance to educate lawmakers about the federal government’s role in advancing a firearm violence prevention research agenda. Importantly, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of the FY 2026 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill before departing Capitol Hill for the August recess, which similarly rejected the president’s proposed elimination of the Injury Center by providing continued funding for all the agency’s programs, including the Firearm Injury and Mortality Prevention Research program.

As the appropriations process advances and lawmakers work to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate bills, the injury and violence prevention community will have the opportunity to urge support for the funding levels contained in the Senate bill, ensuring that funds supporting the firearm violence prevention research agenda are not lost. Exactly how the appropriations process advances over the next few months is difficult to predict given the need for Congress to pass a continuing resolution before the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1. However, as the appropriations end game comes into focus, members of the injury and violence prevention community will be called upon to engage in the policymaking process to urge support for the more generous FY 2026 funding levels for the Injury Center in the Senate’s Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill.