Washington, DC — The Cure Coalition today submitted comments to the Office of Management and Budget on its proposed rule, “Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance,” Docket No. OMB-2026-0034.
In its comments, Cure urged OMB to ensure that any final rule protects patients enrolled in active research, preserves scientific merit in federal funding decisions, strengthens American biomedical leadership, and avoids adding new administrative burdens that could divert time and resources away from lifesaving research.
“American families depend on a research system that is safe, rigorous, and strong enough to keep lifesaving innovation here at home,” said Cara Kingan, Executive Director of the Cure Coalition. “We support transparency, accountability, and responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars, but reforms should strengthen biomedical research, not disrupt active trials, undermine scientific review, or make it harder to develop the medicines patients rely on.”
Cure’s comments focus on four provisions in the proposed rule that could, as written, harm patients and weaken domestic research capacity:
- Broad discretionary authority to terminate or suspend active awards when deemed “in the interest of the Federal agency” could jeopardize patients participating in ongoing biomedical and clinical research. The Coalition urged OMB to require orderly wind-down protections for enrolled patients, preserve meaningful opportunities for reconsideration or appeal, and account for sunk taxpayer investment and the scientific value of continuity before a research award is terminated.
- Requiring senior appointees to conduct pre-issuance review of every discretionary award, while treating expert peer review as merely advisory, could displace the merit-based scientific review process that helps ensure federal dollars support the most promising and safest research. The Coalition urged OMB to preserve independent scientific peer review as the primary basis for evaluating biomedical research awards and to define “Gold Standard Science” around rigor, reproducibility, and patient safety.
- Efforts to reduce dangerous dependence on foreign adversaries deserve support, but the proposed restrictions on covered foreign collaborations could sweep too broadly and unintentionally disrupt legitimate clinical research with trusted allied partners. The Coalition recommended that OMB focus restrictions on foreign adversaries and sanctioned entities, create a clear exception pathway for legitimate allied collaborations, and pair those limits with support for rebuilding domestic research capacity.
- Several provisions intended to improve oversight could instead increase recipient burden for research institutions and smaller entities conducting biomedical research. The comments point specifically to written justification requirements for every payment request, expanded pre-award risk review, and broad E-Verify obligations as changes that could add delay and administrative cost at the expense of work in the lab and clinic.
The Coalition also urged OMB to extend the comment period, arguing that the rule’s scope and the compressed 45-day timeline warranted additional time for patients, researchers, and the public to weigh in fully.
The Cure Coalition’s comments reflect its core mission: ensuring that medicines are developed under the highest standards of safety, ethics, and scientific integrity on American soil, free from dangerous foreign dependence.
About Cure Coalition
Cure Coalition advocates for responsible, evidence-based biomedical research that keeps our families safe and keeps trusted U.S. research approaches as the standard. As mothers, healthcare professionals, and concerned citizens, we’re committed to advancing treatments and cures through medicines Americans can count on. Learn more at curecoalition.org.