The Federal Budget that passed on Friday, March 14, 2025 cut 57% - approximately $850 million - out of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP). This is a Department of Defense agency that funds biomedical research programs, including spinal cord injury. Those cuts included the complete elimination of the Spinal Cord Injury Research Program (SCIRP)…or about $40 million this year. That’s $40 million GONE, right now!

Spinal Cord Injury/Disease is already among the most under-funded, under researched conditions in existence. Yet is considered among the WORST conditions to live with by the WHO. This program (CDMRP SCIRP), run by the Department of Defense and responsible for medical research and development for the warfighter and US citizens, accounted for roughly 1/3 of the dollars that funded Spinal Cord Injury Research in the US.
And now it’s gone. So please: contact your Congressional members today and ask them to restore funding to SCIRP!
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When congress passed H.R. 1968, a Continuing Resolution funding bill, they decided that SCIRP was not worth the taxpayers dollar.
SCIRP was .005% of the Department of Defense budget. It was supporting ground-breaking research, moving science from the lab into the clinic. It was fast tracking research to help us breath on our own, mitigate unbearable nerve pain and regain independence. It was responsible for the development of field-deployable technologies to treat our soldiers after trauma.
This program was not partisan. It was practical. It was productive. And we do not have the luxury to sit idly by and loose what has been fought so hard for.
Latest Articles
Read articles from U2FP and other outlets on the impact of SCIRP and why these cuts must be reversed.
Call on Congress to restore the Spinal Cord Injury Research Program funding for our troops and our nation! Please call your Senators and Representative today. we are joining a collective of organizations who represent multiple diseases and conditions that were affected by cuts to the CDMRP (Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program), which is housed within the Department of Defense. This should take no more than five minutes.
Advocates for patients with spinal cord injuries are raising alarm over a $40 million research program they said was quietly cut from a Department of Defense office that funds medical research. The office recently announced it would fund 12 programs with $650 million in the new fiscal year. That’s a 57 percent reduction from 2024, when it spent roughly $1.5 billion for 35 programs. Among the cuts is $40 million for a research program launched in 2009 to support veterans with spinal cord injuries. Without the funds, advocates and scientists worry...
Last week we organized a meeting attended by leaders from The Craig H Neilsen Foundation, United Spinal, The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, The North American SCI Consortium, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Wings 4 Life and The Shepherd Center. We met to share information, strategize and mobilize our community to fight back. At the time, there was no formal path forward. Now there is an emerging strategy...