Inside (the Beltway) Scoop

By: Ellen Kuo
Thursday, March 27, 2025
FASEB Annual Capitol Hill Day Demonstrates the Need for More Advocacy

On March 19, 51 FASEB advocates from 29 states representing the 22 societies of the FASEB Board of Directors, Science Policy Committee, and the Howard Garrison Advocacy Fellowship program took time out of their busy schedules to visit Capitol Hill offices. Through their combined efforts, the advocates visited a total of 96 members of Congress (50 Senate and 46 House of Representatives offices). The effort was bipartisan as FASEB’s representatives met with 54 Democrat offices and 41 Republicans.

During their congressional meetings, advocates discussed the firing of federal employees from key federal science agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, and the issue of capping facilities and administrative (F&A) costs and how this would impact institutions where they worked as well as increasing the costs of research, especially for researchers using animals. Facilities not adequately reimbursed for housing such animals still must maintain high standards of care for them and will only pass on the increased costs to researchers rather than lower their standard of care if F&A costs are reduced for their facilities. Congressman Rob Wittman also wrote a letter asking about the 15 percent cap on F&A costs for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant recipients.

Additionally, offices were given FASEB’s fiscal year (FY) 2026 funding recommendations, all of which mirror coalition efforts except for the National Science Foundation, which is a stretch goal but reflects the FY 2025 authorized funding level for the agency in the bipartisan Chips and Science Act of 2022. Advocates provided key factsheets to offices showing the impact of science funding by state and congressional districts and learned more about what they needed to do during these uncertain times to further their efforts. These include reaching out to Republican offices, making in person state advocacy visits, and providing stories to Senators and House members about the impact of the changes that have already occurred. One advocate said he was seeing a brain drain from the U.S. to countries such as China due to the resources being provided there for their cutting-edge research into new drugs and critical technologies. Other examples were institutions having to implement hiring freezes and early career researchers uncertain about continuing a career in research.

Senate Democrats Tammy Baldwin and Peter Welch will hold a forum: “Cures in Crisis: What Gutting NIH Research Means for Americans with Cancer, Alzheimer’s & Other Disease” on Wednesday, March 26, in Senate Dirksen-106 with a livestream available here to discuss the impacts on research. Senator Elizabeth Warren has also written a letter to the NIH Acting Director asking about NIH funding cuts that are causing “ongoing chaos” due to the administration’s initial funding pause to the agency. This is not the time for the nation to lose its global leadership in the biomedical field, which will only lower the standard of living for its citizens and slow the development of desperately needed cures for devasting diseases such as Alzheimer’s. For example, researchers estimate a lifetime risk of dementia of 42 percent after age 55, more than double previous estimates, with women having a higher lifetime risk.

A video with highlights from FASEB’s Capitol Hill Day can be viewed on LinkedIn. Other Capitol Hill Day highlights were summarized on FASEB’s X and Bluesky accounts. Each Spring, FASEB brings federally funded scientists to Capitol Hill to share the impact of federal funding at the state and local level.