United Spinal Association is urging stakeholders to join the fight to restore funding for the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Spinal Cord Injury Research Program (SCIRP) in 2026.
“On March 15, the Spinal Cord Injury Research Program at the Department of Defense was eliminated,” United Spinal said in a May 1 bulletin. “There was no notice. There was no debate. At the last minute, in the fine print of the must-pass bill to keep the government open, language was slipped in that resulted in the entire $40 million budget for SCI research at the DOD — in place since 2009 — being zeroed out for 2025.”
Spinal cord injuries among military veterans
The Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs’ spinal cord injury (SCI) project explained the need for the SCIRP.
“It is estimated that about 300,000 individuals are living with an SCI, and this number continues to grow as over 17,000 new cases occur in the U.S. each year,” the SCIRP website says. “For military populations, the current rate of SCI is relatively low; however, these injuries are still a major cause of medical discharge from service.
“Furthermore, between 2000 and 2009, during the height of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the rate of SCI in the military was nearly eight times that of the civilian population. As a result, the Department of Veterans Affairs is the largest single SCI care network, providing services for 10%–20% of all individuals living with an SCI in the U.S.”
SCIRP was established by Congress in fiscal year 2009 “in part as a response to the high rates of SCI observed in warfighters returning home from duty,” the program said. “The Congressional intent was to establish a program to enhance the long-term care of wounded Soldiers. To this end, the SCIRP has invested over $200 million into research and development efforts guided by the vision to advance the treatment and management of SCI and ameliorate its consequences relevant to injured service members.”
The program’s priorities included preserving/protecting spinal cord tissue at time of injury to improve neurologic outcomes; identifying and validating biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis, and to evaluate the success of treatments; and developing and testing interventions for conditions such as autonomic dysfunction, neuropathic pain, and bowel and genitourinary problems.
Appealing to Congress for help
United Spinal called SCIRP “the gold standard of SCI research in the United States,” describing it as “a shining example of how the SCI community, clinicians and researchers can come together to work towards innovative projects with real-world applications.”
As a result, the organization is “asking Congress to restore funding for SCIRP in fiscal year 2026. As SCIRP represented approximately one third of the total SCI research funding in the United States, it is critical that this funding be restored.”
United Spinal has built an advocacy page so stakeholders can send letters of SCIRP support to senators and member of Congress. “I am gravely concerned that the SCIRP at the Department of Defense was eliminated for FY25 [fiscal year 2025] as a result of the continuing resolution signed into law on March 15,” the letter said. “As you begin work on the appropriations process for FY2026, please restore these critical research and development investments guided by the vision to advance the treatment and management for SCI for military service members, their families, veterans, and all individuals living with SCI.”
