Healthcare organizations urge Congress to save AHRQ

Editor's Note

Almost 200 healthcare organizations sent letters to Congress urging members to restore funding for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

The House Appropriations Committee in June voted to eliminate the research agency, and the Senate Appropriations Committee proposed a 35% cut to AHRQ’s budget.

The letters note that “AHRQ is the only federal research agency with the sole purpose of producing evidence to make healthcare safer; of higher quality; more accessible, equitable, and affordable; and to ensure that the evidence is understood and used.”

Nearly 200 healthcare organizations have sent letters to the Senate and the House urging Congress to fully restore funding for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). In June, the House Appropriations Committee voted in favor of a bill that would eliminate the Department of Health & Human Services' (HHS) AHRQ, a research agency that has long been disliked by some members of Congress.