Autism Policy Reform Coalition A 501(c)(4) social welfare organization · EIN 42-4830108 September 1, 2026 The Honorable Tom Cole Chairman, Committee on Appropriations U.S. House of Representatives The Honorable Rosa L. DeLauro Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Committee on Appropriations U.S. House of Representatives The Honorable Susan Collins Chair, Committee on Appropriations United States Senate The Honorable Shelley Moore Capito Chair, Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Committee on Appropriations United States Senate CC: The Honorable Robert Aderholt, Chair, House LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee; The Honorable Tammy Baldwin, Ranking Member, Senate LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee; The Honorable Patty Murray, Vice Chair, Senate Committee on Appropriations Re: Funding to implement the 2026–2028 IACC Strategic Plan—research, translational science, and communications—in the Fiscal Year 2027 Continuing Resolution Dear Chairman Cole, Ranking Member DeLauro, Chair Collins, and Chair Capito: On behalf of the Autism Policy Reform Coalition and the families, clinicians, and advocates whose interests we represent, we write to urge the Appropriations Committees to use the forthcoming Fiscal Year 2027 Continuing Resolution to protect current federal autism investments and to provide targeted start-up funding and directive language so that the newly adopted Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) Strategic Plan for 2026–2028 can begin to move from paper into practice. On August 27, 2026, the IACC voted to adopt A New Federal Framework for Autism, the first comprehensive Strategic Plan since 2023 and the first plan prepared under the strengthened authorities of the Autism Collaboration, Accountability, Research, Education, and Services Act of 2024 (Autism CARES Act of 2024; Pub. L. No. 118-180). That statute reauthorized the IACC through September 30, 2029, directed the Committee to produce a Strategic Plan with proposed budgetary requirements, and required the NIH Director, for fiscal years 2026 through 2029, to prepare an annual autism budget estimate pursuant to the Plan and transmit it to the President for review and submission to Congress. The Plan is advisory, but it is not optional as a planning document. Congress created the IACC, charged it with this work, and tied NIH’s annual autism budget estimate to the Plan. A Continuing Resolution that merely freezes last year’s rate of operations without recognizing the new Plan will leave agencies unable to stand up the research, translational, and public-communications architecture the Committee has now recommended. Families cannot wait another full appropriations cycle for that work to begin. The community interest we represent is aligned with the Plan’s two overarching priorities: urgently improving medical care and research for autistic people, including those with profound autism and the highest support needs; and supporting autistic people across the lifespan, with particular attention to co-occurring medical conditions that drive suffering, crisis, and cost—gastrointestinal disease, sleep disruption, seizures, speech and motor impairment, and mental health conditions. CDC surveillance now estimates autism in approximately 1 in 31 eight-year-old children. Prevalence of that magnitude, combined with a large and growing adult population, makes delay in translation and public navigation indefensible. The Plan is also explicit about scale. The Autism CARES Act of 2024 authorizes $390.444 million annually for specified federal autism activities through fiscal year 2029. The adopted Plan recommends raising total annual federal autism investment to $747.444 million, including $633 million at NIH (inclusive of the IACC), $48.1 million at CDC, and $66.344 million at HRSA. We recognize that a Continuing Resolution is not the vehicle for the full recommended increase. It is the vehicle that will determine whether implementation starts on October 1 or stalls until a full-year Labor-HHS bill is enacted. We therefore respectfully request that the Committees include the following in the FY 2027 Continuing Resolution and accompanying statement of managers or joint explanatory statement: 1. Protect the enacted FY 2026 Autism CARES floor. 2. Include an anomaly of not less than $75 million for NIH research start-up under the new Strategic Plan, including the National Neurodevelopmental Regression Initiative. 3. Fund NAPTI translational start-up with an anomaly of not less than $20 million. 4. Fund Autism.gov and IACC public reporting with not less than $8 million. 5. Direct implementation in report language, including the NIH autism budget estimate, a National Autism Coordinator, a 12-month implementation schedule, and inclusion of profound autism. Total new CR authority requested: $103 million, plus hold-harmless for FY 2026 enacted Autism CARES activities. The full letter and enclosure, including suggested report language, are posted at letter.html and in APRC-IACC-Strategic-Plan-CR-Letter.docx. Respectfully submitted, The Steering Committee Autism Policy Reform Coalition appropriations@autismpolicyreform.org · Washington, D.C.