On May 20, the Senate Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services conducted a hearing to review the President’s budget request for the Department of Health and Human Services in fiscal year 2026. Since the administration began announcing cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Society has worked with the Congress to restore funding. We have worked particularly closely with members of the congressional Diabetes Caucus to address the cancellation of the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study (DPPOS). During the hearing, Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), co-chair of the Diabetes Caucus, questioned Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about DPPOS and asked for his commitment to restore funds. Secretary Kennedy responded that he was not aware that the funding for DPPOS had been cancelled and committed to looking into this further and working with NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya to restore the funding. We are grateful to Senator Shaheen for her help to resolve this issue and we are continuing to work with a bipartisan group of House and Senate members.
After the hearing, we sent a follow-up letter to Secretary Kennedy and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya urging them to restore the DPPOS funding. This research, which was canceled in March, was conducted at 30 institutions in 21 states and supports studies on the long-term effects of diabetes prevention on other health conditions including Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and heart disease. The exchange with Secretary Kennedy is encouraging and highlighted that despite multiple communications to the Secretary from Members of Congress and the Endocrine Society, there is still confusion about the status of DPPOS. Endocrine Society members can help advocate for diabetes prevention by joining our online advocacy campaign. The Society will continue to advocate for DDPOS and highlight that it is a great example of how the administration can achieve its goal to combat chronic disease.
On May 22, the Make America Healthy Again Commission issued a report on “Making our Children Healthy Again (Assessment).” The report focuses on several issues that it claims is driving the rise in childhood chronic disease, specifically poor diet, environmental chemicals, lack of physical activity, chronic stress, and “overmedicalization.” The report is particularly critical of ultraprocessed foods (UPF) and the influence of industries with perceived conflicts of interest in the regulatory process.
Several elements of the report reflect the Society’s messaging on our policy priorities, for example highlighting the impact of rising rates of obesity on military readiness. It also calls attention to how environmental exposures and endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) affect the endocrine system during development in children, noting that the current risk assessment regulatory structure often fails to take relevant scientific studies and dose-response relationships into consideration, and citing our 2015 Scientific Statement on EDCs. To address these and other issues, the authors propose 10 steps aimed at supporting “gold standard scientific research and developing a comprehensive strategy.” These steps include investing in reproducibility efforts at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), evaluating chemicals that are approved under the Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) affirmation, “long-term trials” evaluating the effects of diet on obesity and insulin resistance, and precision toxicology to map gene-environment interactions affecting childhood disease risk.
While we share many of the same concerns raised in the report regarding the increase of chronic disease in children – diabetes, obesity, exposure to chemicals – we also note that the report is less of a scientific review and more a review based on the Secretary’s perspective and interest in certain unproven theories. The report does not acknowledge well-established drivers of the chronic disease epidemic such as poor diet, lack of physical activity, and restrictions of access to care. In addition, the priorities in the report are at odds with the administration’s actions to slash funding for prevention programs and medical research, dismantle government agencies including the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) and the NIH. In fact, the report was released the same day as the House of Representatives passed sweeping legislation that would cut Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act and remove access to care for millions of children and their families.
It is unclear how the report may be translated into regulatory proposals or other actions by agencies. The Endocrine Society will urge the Secretary and the Commission that developed this report to adopt proven measures to address diabetes, obesity, and other chronic diseases in children and work with the health community to meaningfully reduce chronic disease and increase access to care. We encourage Endocrine Society members to join our online advocacy campaign to continue to educate the Congress about the impact of funding cuts on research programs and urge lawmakers to protect the NIH.
The budget reconciliation legislation passed by the House of Representatives on May 21 includes a provision to address Medicare physician payment. The legislation would provide an inflationary update to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) tied to 75% of the Medicare Economic Index (MEI) in 2026. This would provide an estimated 2.25% update to the MPFS in 2026 if this provision were to become law. However, it is expected that this legislation will be modified in the Senate and it’s unclear how this provision will be impacted. The Society will continue to watch this closely as this moves forward and will continue to advocate for appropriate Medicare Physician Payment adjustments to correct reductions and the current flawed Medicare physician payment formula.
The Endocrine Society’s Clinical Affairs Core Committee will host the third annual Endocrine Mentor Day (eMD) at ENDO 2025 in San Francisco. The event will take place on Sunday, July 13. During the event, medical students and residents will be paired with an Endocrine Society member as their “mentor” for the day. Mentors will guide attendees around ENDO and introduce them to ENDO’s signature programs, including poster presentations, Meet the Professor sessions, and the ENDOExpo hall. The event has been a big success in the past two years due in large part to our terrific mentors. If you are interested in joining us for this program as a mentor, please email Ellie Cliff at [email protected].
We rely on your voice to advocate for our policy priorities. Join us to show our strength as a community that cares about endocrinology. Contact your US representatives or European Members of Parliament through our online platform. Take action and make a difference today.
