On July 22, 2026, NAVREF submitted a Statement for the Record to the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs for its hearing, Advancing the Mission: Evaluating the Future of VA Research. 

The future of VA research will be determined not by strategic vision alone, but by the funding, workforce, leadership, and data stewardship that underpin it.

Drawing on the extramural vantage point of our 76+ nonprofit research and education corporations (NPCs), which collectively administer roughly $350 million in Veterans research each year, the statement urges the Committee to fully fund VA's research enterprise, fix the hiring delays slowing clinical trials, and safeguard the Million Veteran Program and the data Veterans entrusted to VA. It also calls on Congress to unburden VA by empowering its congressionally chartered NPC partners.

Read the full Statement for the Record →