Yesterday (07/31/25), the Senate Appropriations Committee voted 26-3 to advance legislation that includes a cut to vision and eye health programs for Fiscal Year 2026. As proposed, the bill cuts funding for the Vision Health Initiative (VHI) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by $2 million, leaving the program with just $4.5 million in FY 2026 to conduct critical vision health data collection, operate the Vision and Eye Health Surveillance System (VEHSS), continue community-level interventions for glaucoma, and promote awareness of the serious connection between diabetes and diabetes-related blindness.
Overall, CDC saw a decrease of $70 million across the agency. The committee rejected the Trump Administration’s proposed reorganization of the National Institutes of Health, which would have consolidated several institutes including the National Eye Institute (NEI), and included a level funding of $896 million for eye and vision research for FY 2026. The legislation must now be agreed upon by the full Senate and reconciled with the House LHHS appropriations bill (which has not been released yet).
Prevent Blindness has a long legacy of promoting and advocating the work of the VHI and the VEHSS. We are deeply disappointed by this cut. While it is a far better outcome than the elimination of the CDC’s chronic disease and health promotion programs (as proposed in the President’s Budget Request), the VHI has long been in need of resources adequate enough to respond to the burgeoning impacts of vision loss and blindness as a result of diabetes and other chronic diseases, our aging population, and threats to children’s vision and eye health—including the increasing incidence of eye disease due to diabetes at earlier ages. Now more than ever, in an era of tough budget decisions, our advocacy, represented by collective voices across many stakeholders, is vital to protecting the resources available to the VHI. Please sign up for advocacy alerts to remain informed of these and other efforts aimed at protecting our nation’s vision and eye health.
