Congress completes FY 2025 appropriations

On March 14, halfway into fiscal year (FY) 2025, the Senate by a vote of 54-46, passed a full year spending bill/continuing resolution (CR), the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025opens in new window, providing funding for agencies through September 30, 2025.

While the measure mostly keeps funding flat at FY 2024 levels, it reduces spending for some agencies and programs, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which received a $280 million cut (mandatory funding which expired as part of the 21st Century Cures Actopens in new window) below the FY 2024 funding level. It also cuts the Department of Defense’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs by 57%, a long-supported program by APA Services that funds research on several health-related issues including traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The bill extends the NIH Facilities and Administrative (indirect costs) statutory language prohibiting the administration from changing the indirect formula. The administration’s proposal to impose a 15% cap was blocked by a federal court; a decision the administration is challenging. The CR also gives the administration significant power to make decisions on how individual programs are funded. This could lead to some programs receiving less funds than they had in FY 2024, even while the bill itself ostensibly keeps funding flat. This could especially be the case within agencies the administration is looking to curtail or substantially pare back such as the Department of Education or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Over 40,000 messages were sent by psychologists to Congress expressing concerns with the arbitrary 15% cap on indirect costs and science funding.

As Congress quickly turns its attention to FY 2026 appropriations, many of these same issues will once again be debated. Despite the challenging fiscal climate, APA Services will continue to advocate for the highest levels of support for programs of importance to psychology.

Thank you for making a difference and responding to APA Services’ call to actionopens in new window. Your voice continues to be important, whether fighting to increase education funding, garnering support for basic and applied research, or advocating for fair reimbursement for practitioners. Over the last several years, our collective advocacy has made a difference, as together we averted proposed cuts that would have significantly cut psychological science and research, education and training programs, and access to behavioral health services, impeding so much of the progress recently made.

Now, more than ever, psychology needs you to continue to make your voice heard on the critical issues facing the field today. Psychologists sent more than 40,000 messages urging their federal elected officials to take steps to stop the funding cuts at the NIH which jeopardizes the well-being of individuals, families, and communities across the country who rely on research to improve our lives.

APA Services will continue to engage you in these critical advocacy efforts as together we fight to protect the profession and the communities psychology serves.

For more information, contact Angela L. Sharpe or Kenneth Polishchuk.