- The Honorable Susan Collins
Chair
Committee on Appropriations
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510 - The Honorable Patty Murray
Vice Chair
Committee on Appropriations
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510 - The Honorable Tom Cole
Chair
Committee on Appropriations
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515 - The Honorable Rosa DeLauro
Ranking Member
Committee on Appropriations
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chair Collins, Vice Chair Murray, Chairman Cole, and Ranking Member DeLauro:
As you consider appropriations for Fiscal Year (FY) 2027, the undersigned 410 national, state, and local medical, public health, and research organizations write to ask you to provide $35 million for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), $25 million for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and $1 million for the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to conduct public health research into firearm morbidity and mortality prevention.
We represent many medical, public health, and research organizations, including members who are proud firearm owners. The freedom of individuals to own firearms can and should be balanced with protecting children and their families from serious harm, and ensuring the health, security, and well-being of all people. This is why our organizations strongly support federal funding for research into firearm morbidity and mortality prevention.
We are grateful to Congress for providing $12.5 million for the CDC and $12.5 million for the NIH in FY 2026 and encourage Congress to sustain and build on this funding in FY 2027. Across this country, communities are suffering from preventable firearm-related injuries and deaths. Suicide, violent crime, and accidental shootings cause trauma to families, communities, and children affected by these preventable tragedies. In 2024, the most recent year for which we have provisional data, firearm-related injuries led to an estimated 44,492 total fatalities, with suicides contributing to more than half of those deaths.
Click here to view the full Neurosurgery Supports Gun Violence Prevention Research Funding FY27
