Invitation to Join FY 26 Appropriations Letter from Epilepsy Organizations - Deadline Aug 15
- Ilene Miller
- Aug 10
- 2 min read
Attached is an important UPDATE and INVITE to Epilepsy Organizations from EAN Partner Epilepsy Foundation's Roxanne Yaghoub. If you represent an epilepsy organization, you are invited to join a joint stakeholder letter in support of epilepsy appropriations.
I wanted to give you an update on Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) appropriations for epilepsy-related programs and research, and also give you the opportunity to join an organizational letter in support of this funding.
As you may have heard, federal funding for many epilepsy-related programs and research is under threat:
The President's FY26 budget proposed to eliminate or decrease funding for most of these programs, but the President's budget is non-binding and Congress usually makes changes to the funding levels.
The House and Senate are in the process of considering their FY26 appropriations bills, including the Labor-Health and Human Services (HHS), Defense, and Military Construction and VA (MilCon-VA) bills that include epilepsy programs and research.
There has been some good news recently in that the Senate Labor-HHS bill passed out of Committee last week with strong funding levels, including $11.5 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Epilepsy Program, equal to what the program received last year, as well as a $400 million increase for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). However, the House has delayed consideration of its Labor-HHS appropriations bill until at least September. Also, the House and Senate have proposed continuing to fund the various epilepsy-related Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP). The House and Senate have also recommended continued or increased funding for the VA Epilepsy Centers of Excellence.
This information is correct as of now, but appropriations is a rapidly evolving situation. None of the FY26 appropriations bills have been signed into law yet and a lot is still unknown, so now is a critical time for the epilepsy community to speak up in support of the funding!
Comments