u/lunchboxultimate01

TLDR:

Step 1: Sign the A4LI proposal to maintain NIH/NIA funding and implement greater focus/coordination with aging biology. This will help them as they engage with members and staff of Appropriations Committees.

Step 2: Find your House and Senate officials here, and use their contact pages to urge maintaining funding for ARPA-H and NIH/NIA, as well as a greater aging biology focus in NIH. Feel free to use the sample below, and contact them weekly over the next few months as budgets and appropriations are debated.

Dear Member of Congress and Staff,

The 2027 Executive budget proposal contains a $555 million (37%) cut to ARPA-H, which would be disastrous for US medical breakthroughs. ARPA-H funds research for bold medical innovation to maintain and restore health in costly pathologies and disabilities, such as neurodegeneration, osteoarthritis, blindness, and more. Cures for these conditions are essential to an aging country. I urge you to protect ARPA-H's $1.5 billion budget and preferably increase it.

The proposed cuts to NIH and NIA (National Institute on Aging) would also be harmful to US health and medical research. To improve impact and efficiency, please advocate for a disease-burden funding allocation, as well as establishing more aging biology consortia to work with major NIH institutes, as the existing Onco-Aging Consortium does. Such a proposal from the Alliance for Longevity Initiatives (A4LI) uses current funding levels, which must be protected: https://a4li.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/realigning_for_impact.pdf

Please maintain or increase funding for ARPA-H, NIH, and NIA, and advocate for A4LI's high-impact framework to expand and integrate aging biology research.

Sincerely,

Your Constituent

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Additional background: 

Last year, the White House also proposed significant cuts to ARPA-H and NIH, but Congress appropriated similar funding levels as previous years. Contacting your elected officials helps make a difference. For 2027, the Trump administration is again proposing a decrease of $555 million or 37% to ARPA-H, as well as smaller cuts to NIH and different funding/organizational structures. While it's true there are other problems such as staffing shortages, protecting against funding cuts is a necessary first step. ARPA-H is funding critical research programs on aging, such as FRONT by the scientist who wrote Replacing Aging, and PROSPR by a scientist from the Longevity Biotech Fellowship. Other programs like NITRO, THEA, BIOGAMI, and many more also align with the goals of medically targeting aging, especially through repair and replacement. Severe reductions in the ARPA-H budget would hamper opportunities for medical breakthroughs.

The A4LI proposal for NIH and NIA would replicate the Onco-Aging Consortium that connects aging and oncology via the NIA and NCI (National Cancer Institute) for seven other institutes within NIH, which would integrate and amplify aging biology research into the larger research organizations. The proposal operates with maintained funding levels for NIH.

The study will enroll 720 participants in a two-year, randomized, double-blind Phase 3 clinical trial. The lead investigator discusses study design, primary and second outcomes, and other aspects of the study in the presentation.