ASE Joins National Coalition for Heart and Stroke Research Letter on FY 2027 Senate Appropriations for NIH Funding

On May 22, ASE, with the National Coalition for Heart and Stroke Research (NCHSR), representing 34 member organizations, submitted testimony to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies on FY 2027 funding for NIH and its role in advancing cardiovascular disease research. The testimony recommends $51.3 billion for NIH overall, along with targeted allocations of $2.86 billion for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), $468 million for the BRAIN Initiative, and $4.337 billion for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). It notes that cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death, accounting for 915,973 U.S. deaths in 2023, and highlights NIH-funded breakthroughs ranging from clot-busting therapies and mechanical thrombectomy for stroke to a 2024 NHLBI advance mapping how LDL cholesterol binds to its receptor, which could enable new targeted therapies. The testimony warns that flat funding would effectively cut the BRAIN Initiative by $195 million and that the daily cost of cardiovascular disease, already more than $1 billion, is projected to exceed $2 trillion annually by 2050 without intervention.

This testimony speaks directly to the cardiovascular and cardiac imaging research at the core of ASE’s specialty, where NIH and NHLBI investment drives the diagnostic and treatment advances that improve outcomes for patients with heart disease and stroke. ASE shares the coalition’s goal of sustaining the federal research funding that underpins progress in cardiovascular care.