A proposed overhaul of federal financial assistance rules (OMB-2026-0034) threatens to destabilize the research infrastructure that veterans depend on for lifesaving care and innovation. Leading veterans’ organizations are joining NAVREF in calling on policymakers to protect the stability, independence, and continuity of federally funded veterans’ research.
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Washington, D.C. — Leading veteran organizations are warning that a newly proposed rule could jeopardize the medical discoveries that millions of veterans rely on for better treatments, improved care, and hope.
The proposed overhaul of the federal Uniform Guidance for Federal Assistance (OMB-2026-0034-0001, RIN 0348-AB88) would significantly change how federally funded research is awarded, managed, and terminated across the federal government. Veterans’ advocates warn the changes could weaken scientific independence, disrupt long-term studies, and slow research into conditions that disproportionately affect veterans.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) operates one of the nation’s largest integrated research programs, with discoveries that have transformed medicine — from the nicotine patch and implantable pacemaker to advances in PTSD, precision oncology, and toxic exposures research. Millions of veterans depend on that research to develop the next generation of treatments; for many, federally funded research is a cornerstone of their care and participation in a clinical trial represents their best hope when existing therapies fall short.
The proposed rule would fundamentally alter how federally funded research is conducted, creating new uncertainty for veterans’ health research. By expanding political oversight, weakening the role of merit-based peer review, and broadening agencies’ authority to terminate research awards without a finding of misconduct, the proposal threatens the stability that scientific discovery depends on.
These changes could slow or discourage research in clinically urgent areas for millions of veterans — including PTSD, suicide prevention, women veterans’ health, toxic exposures, substance use disorders, reproductive health, and emerging therapies such as psychedelics. They also place long-term, multi-year studies at risk. Once interrupted, these studies cannot simply be restarted; years of scientific progress, patient participation, and taxpayer investment may be permanently lost.
