Please urge your Members of Congress to block a deeply concerning proposed regulatory change that would harm the integrity of federal research, and reduce access to behavioral health services and financial assistance programs vital to populations across the U.S. The actions of advocates sure as yourselves helped pause the review of this proposed rule through December 11, 2026, but we need to keep the pressure on for the proposed rule to be withdrawn.

Specifically, a sweeping new proposed rule from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) would significantly reshape how all federal grants and other financial assistance is awarded and managed across the entire government. The proposal does this by:

• Codifying the administration’s efforts to increase control and oversight of federal grantmaking by giving unprecedented authority over grantmaking to political appointees.
• Making peer review advisory, rather than determinative, shifting decision authority away from traditional expert-driven processes.
• Restricting public access to information about federally funded programs and research. 
• Prohibiting federal funding on a range of “ideological” issues, and shifting the federal approach toward a standardized, non-identity-specific model of assistance. 
• Expanding the administration’s authority to terminate active grants at any time, for any reason.

All together, these changes—which apply to all discretionary federal grants and financial assistance programs—pose a serious risk to scientific independence, public health, and the integrity of evidence-based decision-making.

While the regulatory comment for the OMB proposal itself ended on July 13 (with nearly 500,000 comments on the proposal), there is still time to ask Congress to fully halt this proposal and protect critical federal funding. At this time, Congress has only paused this proposal, and that pause will end on December 11, 2026. For context, in September 2026, Congress passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the government at current levels through December 11, which would avert a late-September funding lapse and give Congress more time to advance bipartisan Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 appropriations bills. Importantly, the CR includes language that would delay implementation of this proposed rule on federal financial assistance for the duration of the short-term funding measure. 

The time is now to stand up for scientific integrity and protect communities across the country who rely on services and care supported by federal funding.

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