- The Honorable Tom Cole
Chair
Committee on Appropriations
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515 - 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 Rosa DeLauro
Ranking Member
Committee on Appropriations
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Chair Collins, Vice Chair Murray, Chairman Cole, and Ranking Member DeLauro:
As you consider appropriations for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026, the undersigned 412 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 2025 and encourage Congress to sustain and build on this funding in FY 2026. These
agencies, along with the NIJ, are complementary yet uniquely integral to this work. The CDC
focuses its research efforts on preventing firearm-related injuries and sharing vital public health
statistics; the NIH focuses on using health system data to identify the root causes behind firearm
injury; and the NIJ focuses on the links between firearm-related injuries, deaths, and crime. All
three share and use their collective findings to best inform their work and evaluate potential
lifesaving interventions.
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 2023, the most recent year for which we
have data, firearm-related injuries led to 46,728 total fatalities, with suicides contributing to more
than half of those deaths.
After decades without dedicated funding, Congress came together in 2019 to reach a bipartisan
agreement to provide this research funding in the FY 2020 spending bill that was signed into law
by President Trump. We are grateful for these continued investments and their positive impact in
the lives of Americans. These initial research investments are a crucial step toward increasing
gun safety and reducing firearm-related injuries and deaths, and we are excited to see these funds
contributing to important research projects that are now underway.
Since 2020, the CDC and NIH have made dozens of awards for two- and three-year projects in
states all across the country to improve scientific understanding of firearm-related morbidity and
mortality and to rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of death and injury prevention strategies, as
well as determinants of firearm injury, the identification of those at risk, and the evaluation of
innovative interventions. Several of these projects provide insights on how to reduce suicide
risk in U.S. Army soldiers and veterans, how to partner with families and adolescents in rural
areas to promote firearm safety, how to improve intervention strategies to reduce urban youth
firearm injuries, how to help families with loved ones experiencing dementia talk through secure
storage solutions, and the relationship between firearm access and opioid-related harm on
firearm suicide risk, among other topics. This research is already yielding valuable results: we
now have insight into screening tools and interventions for healthcare settings that could help
prevent future violence and suicide among people at risk, and into the use of crisis hotline data to
better understand how mass shootings impact young people.
These initial investments are important, but increased funding is still needed to overcome the
decades-long lack of federal funding that set back our nation’s response to the public health issue
of firearm-related morbidity and mortality. A 2021 report by Health Management Associates
estimated that the federal government will need to spend approximately $100 million per year to
fully fund a comprehensive research agenda on reducing firearm morbidity and mortality. At
current funding levels, agencies receive many more quality proposals than they are able to fund.
With additional funding, we can research the most effective methods to prevent firearm-related
suicides, measures to help prevent the next shooting at a school or public place, how to help law
enforcement address illegal guns in our communities, and numerous other vital public health
questions.
Our groups strongly urge Congress to increase the funding level to $35 million for the
CDC, $25 million for the NIH, and $1 million for the NIJ for firearm morbidity and
mortality prevention research as part of FY 2026 appropriations. Continuing this funding
is critical, and expanded funding could support the creation of additional, multi-year studies and
accelerate the rebuilding of a research community that shrank in the decades before Congress
restored this federal funding under the Trump administration. Robust and sustained research on
motor vehicle crashes and subsequent legislation has helped save hundreds of thousands of lives
through public health interventions, including seat belts and other safety features. The same
approach can help reduce firearm-related injuries in our communities, including ensuring that the
CDC, NIH, and NIJ are able to adequately fund non-biased, evidence-based research into this
public health priority.
Our organizations stand ready to work with you to support this critical effort. Thank you for your
consideration.
Sincerely,
National Organizations:
AANS/CNS Section on Neurotrauma and Critical Care
AANS/CNS Section on Pediatric Neurosurgery
Academic Pediatric Association
Access Ready Inc.
Advocate Health
AFT: Education, Healthcare, Public Services
AIDS Alliance for Women, Infants, Children, Youth & Families
American Academy of Emergency Medicine
American Academy of Family Physicians
American Academy of Neurology
…
Read full letter here with complete list of organizations.
