ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA – MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2026 – The Save HIV Funding (SHF) Campaign led advocates in bringing the U.S. Conference on HIV/AIDS (USCHA) closing plenary to a pause yesterday as reports emerged of proposed Office of Management and Budget (OMB) controls over National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grants. The protest added urgency to SHF’s demands on three converging threats: delayed research funding notices, a proposed NIAID reorganization, and potential transfers of NIH resources to the Department of Defense.
As Dr. Geri Donenberg, head of NIH’s Office of AIDS Research, discussed advances in prevention and treatment on stage, attendees learned that the White House proposed veto powers over all NIH grants to align with its political priorities. \u200b SHF mobilized advocates beside the stage and alerted Harold Phillips, head of NMAC, the conference’s organizer. After Donenberg’s remarks, Phillips shared the news with the plenary and called for advocates to defend NIH research. Advocates rose in protest, booing and chanting: “When HIV research is under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!”
Statement from Jeremiah Johnson, executive director of PrEP4All and co-founder of SHF:
“We were hearing about the promise of new HIV prevention and treatment advances when our phones lit up with news that could undermine that very work. We mobilized because research must reach the communities still being left behind. From delayed funding to reorganization and threatened transfers, these attacks compound one another. We cannot let the Administration dismantle research infrastructure that is developing the innovations that keep people alive.”
Video HERE courtesy SHF
The closing protest followed SHF’s funeral protest and Celebration of Life at the Hilton Anaheim, which honored people living with HIV and remembered lives lost. Both actions underscored the human stakes of protecting HIV prevention, treatment, care, and research.
Speakers included: Kamaria Laffrey (SERO Project), Vince Crisostomo (SFAF), Jerry Cuffey, Barb Cardell (PWN-USA), Malcolm Reid (PLHIV Caucus), Maxx Boykin (SHF Campaign Manager), and Jeremiah Johnson (SHF co-founder).
The Anaheim action carried forward SHF’s DC funeral protest and Celebration of Life, which used memorial imagery and living-obituary readings to make the consequences of funding instability visible. Laffrey’s living obituary inspired the original Washington, D.C., action and this continuing effort.
As USCHA concluded, SHF renewed its call for Congress and the Administration to address three major threats to the research system that supports HIV services and gives communities a voice in shaping prevention and care. The reported OMB executive order proposal adds urgency to these existing priorities.
For interviews and additional reporting resources, contact tony@morrisonmediaco.com.
SHF is calling on Congress and the Administration to protect the full chain of HIV research: funding that keeps studies operating, experienced staff who support safe trials, and resources that turn scientific advances into better prevention and treatment. Congress must also block initiatives that undermine HIV research, such as proposed executive orders, regulations, or guidance that would politicize grantmaking. For people living with HIV and communities seeking prevention services, those decisions affect the future of care. For advocates, they also determine whether trusted research sites and community partnerships remain strong enough to address unmet needs. SHF is urging lawmakers to implement the demands raised at USCHA through federal oversight and the final fiscal year 2027 spending bill.
The following reporter resource guide details the three priorities SHF is carrying forward after USCHA, with background, primary sources, and questions for federal officials.
1. NIH–DEFENSE AGREEMENT: WILL HIV RESEARCH RESOURCES BE TRANSFERRED TO D.O.D.?
What is happening: House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro warned on September 3 that an interagency agreement could give Defense access to billions of dollars appropriated to NIH, including NIAID. Her statement called for a full accounting of the arrangement and potential transfers.
The published agreement establishes a mechanism for NIH to fund Defense acquisition work for medical countermeasures, including therapeutics, diagnostics, and protective equipment. It requires separate funding orders and says the agreement itself does not obligate funds. It also sets out legal-compliance requirements and NIH oversight responsibilities.
What that means: An agreement and the movement of money are different developments. The public document establishes a route for transfers; it does not establish that billions have already been transferred or identify a verified dollar loss to HIV research.
Why it matters: SHF’s concern is whether resources intended to sustain biomedical research could be redirected while HIV programs are waiting for renewal decisions. The central question is what work would lose support, if any, as the agreement is implemented. Stated controls need to be matched by transparent decisions about projects, amounts, and effects on existing research, with input from scientific experts and the HIV affected community.
What SHF is asking: Congress should demand the project-by-project accounting, identify any NIAID grants or programs that would lose resources, ensure funds serve their congressionally appropriated biomedical research purposes, and include protections for HIV research, specifically including the NIAID Clinical Trial Groups (CTGs) and Centers for HIV Research (CFARs), in the final fiscal year 2027 spending bill.
Questions for NIH, HHS, and Defense: What orders have been approved? How much funding is committed or transferred? Which accounts will supply the funding? Will any HIV awards, staff, or studies lose support? How will Congress and the public track and oversee these decisions?
Primary sources: Published NIH–Defense interagency agreement; House Appropriations Democrats’ statement. The materials reviewed do not verify the scale of any completed transfer or any direct loss to HIV research.
2. DELAYED RECOMPETITION NOTICES: RENEWAL OF THE NEXT ROUND OF HIV RESEARCH SUPPORT HAS BEEN STALLED
What is happening: SHF’s research briefing reports that NIAID notices of funding opportunity, or NOFOs, for HIV clinical trial networks and Centers for AIDS Research were months overdue. An anticipated August 25 release date passed without publication, according to the briefing’s September 9 update. Additionally, recent reporting from The New York Times and The Washington Post reveals that Administration officials may release an Executive Order that would put the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in charge of reviewing NIH grant-making.
What that means: A funding notice is the formal announcement telling researchers what support is available, who can apply, and how applications will be evaluated. It starts a time-consuming process. Delaying the initial release of a NOFO will squeeze the application, review, and award schedule even when Congress has provided money for research.
For the programs identified in SHF’s briefing, the concern is continuity into the next funding period. An overdue notice is not, by itself, proof that every existing grant has ended or that all trials have stopped, although that may be the ultimate result. The urgent questions are whether the NOFO will be released in time to complete the renewal process before current funding expires next year, and whether temporary support will be provided in a timely manner before funds are depleted in order to protect study participants.
An emerging concern is that reports indicate that the President is considering an Executive Order that may establish a commission to review NIH grants. This proposal would deeply politicize federal grantmaking and appears to circumvent the FY27 Continuing Resolution, which halts OMB from finalizing a regulation permitting political appointees to make federal grant decisions through December 11, 2026. \u200b
Who is affected: SHF is concerned about the four NIAID clinical trial networks and 19 Centers for AIDS Research (CFARs). Networks coordinate studies across research sites; CFARs develop innovative scientific approaches and ensure our well of generational scientists continues. They are related parts of the research system, with different roles.
Why it matters: Trials depend on sustained relationships with volunteers, trained coordinators, laboratories, clinical teams, and researchers. If a site loses staff or cannot continue a study, restarting requires more than restoring a budget line. Researchers may lose follow-up information, participants may be removed from trials before studies are completed, and communities may lose trust in institutions that promised continuity.
What SHF is asking: Congress should demand that HHS approve the overdue notices for ACTG, IMPAACT, HPTN, HVTN, and CFARs, and direct NIH/NIAID to publish them immediately after approval. SHF also seeks a clear plan to prevent funding gaps, sustain research infrastructure, and protect study participants. Additionally, Congress, through legislation, should block the OMB proposed rule and any executive order, regulations, or guidance that would change NIH peer review of grants and put political appointees in charge of NIH grant-making.
Questions for HHS and NIH: When will HHS approve the CTN and CFAR NOFOs? What is the NIH doing to ensure that HHS will approve the NOFOs before funding runs out? What steps is the NIH/NIAID taking to ensure that the NOFOs will be released as soon as possible after HHS approval?
3. PROPOSED REORGANIZATION: WHAT IS REALLY HAPPENING?
What is happening: A federal notice proposes abolishing NIAID’s Division of Clinical Research (DCR) and several offices, then redistributing clinical operations and oversight among other NIAID components. NIH published its reorganization plan on September 9, 2026. The announced public-comment window ran only from September 9–18, 2026, overlapping the conference’s opening days. SHF criticized the short timeline and continues to call for meaningful input from researchers, staff, and affected communities.
Why it matters now: Such reorganizations normally take six months or more to complete. SHF is calling for any NIAID reorganization to be delayed until the clinical trial network and CFAR funding notices are released and the renewal process is complete, precluding damaging, unknown, or unforeseen impact that a NIAID reorganization might have on CTN and CFAR funding.
What SHF is asking: Congress should press HHS/NIAID to oppose or delay the reorganization pending meaningful input from scientists, experienced staff, and affected communities; require that a transition not delay the overdue funding notices; and include protections in the final fiscal year 2027 spending bill against reductions in HIV clinical trial and research capacity.
Questions for HHS and NIH/NIAID: Does the limited notice and time to respond comply with federal regulations? What other offices will be abolished or affected? What is the implementation schedule? Is there any area of clinical research at NIAID that may be stopped as a result? Why is there such a rush to reorganization with so little time for public comment? Will the CTN and CFAR renewal process be delayed in any way by the Reorganization?
Primary source and comment information: Federal Register reorganization notice. The notice provides NIAIDExecutiveServices@mail.nih.gov for comments. The stated comment window overlapped with the opening days of USCHA and has now passed.
The three issues affect different parts of the same system. Delayed notices threaten predictable funding, affecting grantees, trial participants, and research institutions nationwide. Reorganization raises questions about continuity of oversight and research. The transfer of funding could change or reduce available resources. SHF warns that their combined effect could be more damaging than any one action considered alone.
For volunteers, disruption could mean uncertainty about study visits, medications, monitoring, and the transition to other services. For communities, it could mean losing trusted staff and research sites built through years of engagement. For institutions, it could mean dismantling long-standing research infrastructure. Any interruption should come with a funded plan to protect participants and preserve access to appropriate care.
For science, SHF warns of setbacks to pediatric treatment, HIV cure research, and further work on long-acting prevention, including lenacapavir. The concern is the continuing research pipeline; it should not be read as a claim that an already approved medicine has been withdrawn.
SHF also warns that harm could extend to work on tuberculosis, viral hepatitis, cancer, and preparedness for future outbreaks, noting that HIV research infrastructure supported the COVID-19 response. SHF argues that weakening that capacity would sacrifice expertise the country may need again.
These risks demand answers now. The materials reviewed do not establish that all affected trials have closed, that participants have already lost treatment, or a quantified increase in infections or drug resistance attributable to these three developments.
Kamaria Laffrey spoke at the Anaheim action. Interview requests about the living-obituary inspiration and the human stakes of funding decisions may be directed to the press contact below. Journalists may also request connections to SHF policy specialists, researchers, providers, and people living with HIV through the press contact below; individual availability will be coordinated.
For post-event coverage and interview coordination, contact the press representative listed below. Additional reporting resources: SHF state-by-state resources; SHF’s Washington funeral protest recap; NMAC’s official USCHA information.
The following background fact sheet provides additional context on the funding pressures facing HIV services and the stakes of continued advocacy after USCHA.
Additional State-by-State Resources & Fact Sheets
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\n Save HIV Funding \n About the Save HIV Funding Campaign:
Launched in 2023 by PrEP4All, AVAC, and the HIV Medicine Association in partnership with the Federal AIDS Policy Partnership, the Save HIV Funding Campaign is a national coalition supported by more than 150 organizations representing advocates, healthcare providers, researchers, and community leaders. The campaign was formed in response to proposed Congressional cuts to federal HIV programs and has since helped avert more than $3.5 billion in domestic HIV funding cuts. Through coordinated advocacy, media engagement, and community mobilization, Save HIV Funding works to place the future of HIV prevention and care squarely in the national conversation. The campaign convenes community health providers and advocates across the country, organizes bipartisan congressional engagement, and mobilizes public voices to ensure that lifesaving HIV programs remain strong, accessible, and fully funded for the communities that rely on them.
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