Booker, 29 Colleagues Demand HHS Rescind Cancellation of Lifesaving Research Grants That Improve Patient Safety & Care

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), along with 29 of his Democratic colleagues, led by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), demanded that Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. reverse the Department’s destructive cancellation of lifesaving health research grants administered by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Congressionally appropriated funding for AHRQ grants supports critical research and initiatives to advance effective healthcare delivery, such as training for rural healthcare workers in Connecticut, testing the use of artificial intelligence in hospitals in Wisconsin, improving autism screening and services for Black children in North Carolina, and equipping primary care providers with effective treatments for chronic pain in Virginia. The cancellations have already had a significant impact on institutions in New Jersey. At Rutgers University, two AHRQ grants were recently terminated, including a $4.27 million grant supporting the Learning Health System Scientist Training and Research Center ( LHS STAR NJ ). A third Rutgers AHRQ grant remains in limbo. In a letter sent to Kennedy, the senators raised concerns about the impact of HHS’s mass cancellations of these research grants, writing, “This unprecedented action, which has led to the disruption of nearly 200 different research programs across nearly 30 states, undermines decades of taxpayer investments to improve healthcare delivery, patient safety, and health outcomes for all Americans. We demand that you immediately rescind these cancellations and ensure that the funding Congress appropriates to AHRQ is invested in health research in accordance with the law.” The senators continued, “We want to be clear: Democrats and Republicans did not work together to appropriate funds for AHRQ as a gentle suggestion for the Department to follow at their discretion or leisure. We provided this money with the explicit instruction that the Department faithfully support life-saving research to improve access and health outcomes for Americans. We did not appropriate these funds so that money could remain unspent while Americans suffer and our healthcare system struggles.” The senators continued, “The agency’s actions over the last year are an outrageous abuse of administrative power that will leave Americans sicker, poorer, and dying from preventable causes. Each of these canceled grants puts real-life patients further from the care that they need.” The senators called on Kennedy to immediately restore full funding to research projects affected by the cancellations and ensure AHRQ’s full FY26 appropriations are obligated as required by law: “At a time when medical errors kill hundreds of thousands of Americans annually, when healthcare costs are crushing family budgets, and when we face unprecedented health challenges, your department has chosen to sabotage the very research designed to solve these problems. This is not leadership—this is sabotage of public health. And it must end immediately.” “The American people deserve a healthcare system informed by the best available evidence. They deserve research that makes their care safer, more effective, and more affordable. Congress has provided the resources to support this vital work. It is your responsibility to ensure these resources are used as intended,” the senators concluded. In addition to Senators Booker, Blumenthal, and Baldwin, the letter was signed by U.S. Senators Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Tina Smith (D-MN), Jack Reed (D-RI), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Gary Peters (D-MI), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Mark Warner (D-VA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL). Read the full text of the senators’ letter here.