INFORMS Open Forum

Good evening,

This week, there are several key updates from Washington below.

Before I get to this week's updates from DC, did you know that the INFORMS Public Relations Team is regularly working with our members to promote their expertise on a wide range of topics and current events?

That work is an important part of our advocacy efforts, and you can visit the INFORMS NewsRoom to see examples of those articles featuring INFORMS Members.

In addition, the Team also regularly promotes INFORMS journal content, awards, and other information to the media. You can see those news releases here.

White House

• The White House released their legislative recommendations for Congress related to Artificial Intelligence policies last week.
  
  The recommendations cover seven core policy areas: protecting children, safeguarding communities, protecting intellectual property, preventing censorship, ensuring U.S. dominance, developing an AI ready workforce, and preempting cumbersome state laws.
  
  You can read the White House's National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence here.

Congress

• The House Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee held an NIH oversight hearing on March 17^th featuring Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. Key information shared:
  • The Office of Management and Budget has released funding for NIH and other federal agencies. This "apportionment" is crucial to ensuring NIH can catch up from a very slow start to grantmaking in FY26. 
  • Along these same lines, Dr. Bhattacharya pledged to spend all of the funds allocated to the NIH for FY26 and emphasized that NIH will fully support high-quality science this year, noting grant funding is actively being distributed, and that efforts are underway to accelerate approvals.
  • Dr. Bhattacharya also noted that he would start filling the NIH Director-level vacancies at Institutes, Centers, and Offices within the next month, with some announcements possible before the end of March. 
  • The president's "skinny" budget (basically, an abridged version) is expected to be released the week of March 30. We'll keep you posted.

In The News

• Science: White House lifts hold on NIH research spending (Subscription Required)
• Forbes: NIH Research Grants Drove A $94 Billion National Economic Impact In 2025

As always, I will continue tracking these and other developments and sharing updates relevant to the INFORMS community.

Best regards,

Jeff Cohen

P.S. Don't forget, if you want to get more involved in or learn more about INFORMS advocacy and public relations efforts, please reach out to me at: jcohen@informs.org

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Jeffrey M. Cohen, MBA | PhD Candidate
Chief Strategy Officer
INFORMS
jcohen@informs.org
linkedin.com/in/jmcsc
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