Congress Returns from August Recess; House to Consider LHHS Bill

Congress has returned from their August recess prepared to tackle appropriations as the end of the fiscal year (FY) rapidly approaches. As previously reported by COSSA, both the House and the Senate have released their Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) Appropriations bills but only the Senate has released their Labor, Health and Human Services, Education (LHHS) bill before leaving for the break (see COSSA’s analyses here). While it’s unlikely they’ll manage to finalize any of their bills before the end of the fiscal year on September 30, the House LHHS Appropriations subcommittee plans to mark up their version of the LHHS bill later today (watch live here). Yesterday, the subcommittee released the bill and a bill summary, which, at first glance, includes;

• $48 billion for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in-line with the Senate’s bill but significantly higher than the President’s request of $27.9 billion;
• $740 million to the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), a $53 million cut but significantly higher than the President’s request of $261.3 million;
• and $100 million for activities related to the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement championed by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Notably, none of the President’s reorganization proposals were included in the bill, but the subcommittee did propose to eliminate the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), a repeated proposal from last year.

Stay tuned for COSSA’s in-depth analysis of the bill and continued reporting on the progress of FY 2026 funding legislation in the weeks and months ahead. You can follow our coverage here.