Contact Your Senators and Representatives to Support COVID-19 Relief Research Funding

The vast majority of research labs across the country were forced to suspend their research or pivot to COVID-19 related work due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To help remedy this, Representatives Diana DeGette (D-CO), Fred Upton (R-MI), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), and Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH) have reintroduced bipartisan legislation to authorize funding to U.S. researchers who have been impacted by the pandemic. Companion legislation has also been reintroduced in the Senate by Senators Edward Markey (D-MA), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Gary Peters (D-MI), and Susan Collins (R-ME). ASH is among the more than 325 organizations that have endorsed this legislation.

The Research Investment to Secure the Economy (RISE) Act (H.R. 869/S. 289) authorizes approximately $25 billion in emergency relief for federal science agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to award to research universities, independent institutions, and national laboratories to continue working on federally-funded research projects. This funding could, among other things, enable graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and Principal Investigators to complete work that was disrupted by COVID-19, or extend the training or employment of researchers on an existing research project for up to two years because of the disruption of the job market.

The bills need as many cosponsors as possible in order for them it to be considered by the full Congress. Please take a moment to enter your information below to quickly send an email to your Senators and Representative urging them to cosponsor the RISE Act.