The Association for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is asking congressional appropriators to allocate $51.3 billion to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2027.
In written testimony submitted April 16, 2026, to the House and May 14, 2026, to the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies committees, Association Board Chair Lynn Schuchter, MD, FASCO, said ASCO is hoping for continued bipartisan support from lawmakers to provide robust cancer research funding in the FY27 budget to help advance and accelerate cancer research and save more lives.
ASCO is also asking the committees to allocate the following:
- $7.99 billion for the National Cancer Institute.
- At least $1.5 billion for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health.
- $482.9 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Cancer Prevention and Control.
In the testimony, Dr. Schuchter reinforced ASCO’s position that predictable cancer research funding is critical.
“We are concerned that drastic funding cuts to NIH will end America’s pre-eminence as the global leader in biomedical research,” she wrote. “Dramatic and sudden reductions, both in staff and resources, could halt clinical trials, shutter labs across the country, force young researchers to abandon academic research and jeopardize Americans’ access to new cancer treatments for years to come.
“We urge the committees to ensure indirect cost adjustments, such as across-the-board caps, involve researcher input to prioritize biomedical progress and access to cutting-edge medicine. We additionally ask the committees to continue its commitment to funding innovative research projects by preventing an increase in the amount of competitive grants fully funded in the first year, which limits the number of new projects supported.”
Congress needs to hear from ASCO members on the importance of robust funding for the NIH, NCI, and ARPA-H in FY 2027. Visit the ACT Network to tell your lawmaker to prioritize federal funding for cancer research.
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