March Advocate Monthly Update
Dear METAvivor Advocates,
As March draws to a close, we are wrapping up our GroundSwell Virtual Advocacy event and ramping up our advocacy on Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 appropriations. Our coalition and legislative work continue, and we are looking forward to building advocacy tools and resources that will make learning about issues and engaging with policy makers as accessible as possible for METAvivor advocates.
Federal Funding and Policy Landscape
The Fiscal Year 2027 Appropriations process is officially underway, and METAvivor has been sharing our priorities and recommendations with the House and Senate as we await the release of the President’s Budget, expected the week of March 30. Our coalition work in this space is especially important; solidarity with other stakeholders in the patient, provider, and research communities will amplify the voice of our advocates and maximize the impact of our shared funding requests. In addition to this community effort, METAvivor has sent our own letter to appropriators emphasizing the importance of restoring $150 million in funding for the Department of Defense’s the Breast Cancer Research Program. This would be a $5 million increase from FY 26 funding, bringing the program back to FY 24 levels.
Even as FY 27 discussions are taking place, Congress has yet to come to an agreement on the FY 26 funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and currently there is no clear path to a resolution. The resulting government shutdown of DHS entities and programs, including the Coast Guard, TSA, and Secret Service that began in mid-February continues. However, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the DHS entity at the heart of the debate, already received robust funding in the One Big Beautiful Bill enacted at the beginning of the year, and is not impacted by the stalemate on DHS appropriations. This ongoing disagreement on DHS, along with the growing price tag for the war in Iran will most certainly impact the tone, content and timing of the FY 27 appropriations debate.
On March 17, the House Appropriations Committee Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (LHHS) Subcommittee held an oversight hearing on the National Institutes of Health (NIH), with NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya testifying. Dr. Bhattacharya, who has also been tapped by the President to serve as Acting CDC Director, promised lawmakers that NIH would award all grant funding by the end of fiscal year 2026 and added that the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Director is accelerating the grant approvals to reach this goal. He also promised to safeguard the research enterprise from political influence. Republican members questioned the Director about restoring public trust in scientific institutions and ensuring NIH funding is distributed broadly across the U.S. Democratic members focused their questions on protecting scientific merit in grant-making, addressing political interference, and supporting diversity and early-career researchers.
Notably, Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) criticized the Administration for front-loading payment for multi-year research grants at the NIH, saying it resulted in 2,000 fewer grants in 2025, and less than 10% of research grant applications at the National Cancer Institute being funded in 2025. The final FY26 funding bill (signed in February 2026) placed restrictions on the NIH’s ability to “forward-fund” grants, aiming to limit this practice to 2025 levels to prevent further drops in new awards. This multi-year, “forward funding” approach is a likely point of contention in the upcoming appropriations debate that we will monitor with our coalition partners.
GroundSwell Virtual Advocacy Event
METAvivor’s third annual GroundSwell Virtual Advocacy Event officially launched on February 23 and was slated to close on March 6. However, we extended the closing date for an additional two weeks to allow advocates more time to schedule and hold their meetings.
Over 100 advocates took part, and as the event concludes we look forward to reviewing participants’ post-meeting survey forms, following up with offices, and garnering advocate feedback about the event overall to help us continue to improve our programming and support for Stampede in the fall and GroundSwell 2027. We are finalizing a post-event survey for participants to go out at the end of the month.
Agency Engagement and SEER Strategy
As part of our efforts to better understand the National Cancer Institute’s SEER Cancer Registry and the CDC’s National Program for Cancer Registries (NCPR), we are building relationships with the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) and the National Cancer Registrar’s Association (NCRA). Both organizations have a deep knowledge of the registries, as well as some of the efforts already underway to support the systems and grow their sophistication. They have been generous in sharing their expertise and interested to learn more about our work and about what MBC representation in the registry data means to our advocates. These discussions and our budding collaboration have already been immensely helpful in growing our understanding of the registry landscape and in learning how best to support modernization and improvement that would better reflect all MBC patients.
Communications, Grassroots, and Grasstops Engagement
Following Board approval of the VoterVoice e-advocacy tool earlier this month, we look forward to getting this new system up and running as a resource for our METAvivor advocates. VoterVoice will make it easier than ever for advocates to act on METAvivor priorities, allowing them to identify their members of Congress, access draft letters created by our staff that they can use as-is or personalize, and send them to offices with a click of their mouse. Over time, the tool will also offer helpful insights about our advocates, such whether we have advocates living in key congressional districts, which advocates are most engaged, and which issues spur the most engagement.
Looking Ahead
In April, METAvivor will focus on GroundSwell wrap-up, advocacy on appropriations, promoting Senate introduction of the Cancer Drug Parity Act, continuing SEER-related strategy development, and building out and launching Voter Voice.
Sincerely,
The METAvivor Advocacy Team