Discover our mission, values, and leadership.
Explore benefits that power your success.
Browse our network of businesses.
Explore opportunities to connect and grow.
Join us for our first Fall installment of the Government Affairs Forum featuring Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
09/16/2026
9:45am - 11:00am
Boston Marriott Copley Place
Enjoy networking with fellow members and hear from Chamber Staff on how to best leverage your Membership to achieve your business goals.
12/01/2026
3:00pm - 4:30pm
Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce
Browse our directory to find and connect with member community.
Join experiences that build relationships and spark ideas.
Curated events and experiences for young adults in Greater Boston —built around community, culture, and connection. Join the Young Bostonians Collective.
Our Women’s Leadership Program enables you to take your leadership to the next level by arming you with the most in-demand leadership toolkit.
The Massachusetts Apprentice Network convenes employers, training providers, and talent sources interested in developing and implementing apprenticeship programs in occupations across industries and statewide in fields such as tech, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, and more.
Our Boston’s Future Leaders (BFL) program provides emerging leaders with a socially conscious and civically engaged leadership toolkit, as well as the opportunity to apply their knowledge through experiential assignments.
The Chamber Foundation invites the business community to engage with Boston Public Schools leaders and their students to help build the future workforce.
Join us for a transformative professional development experience where managers learn practical leadership tools from a CIA‑trained facilitator and build skills they’ll bring back to your organization.
Learn how we advance talent and small business growth.
Join us at our next Foundation event.
August 31, 2026
RE: Prioritizing American Innovation in Stopgap Funding Legislation
Dear Chairman Cole and Ranking Member DeLauro:
On behalf of the Business for Federal Research Funding Coalition (“the Coalition”), representing 88 local, regional, and state chambers of commerce and business organizations, we write to strongly urge you to maintain critical funding support for federal research and development (R&D) programs across all federal agencies in all upcoming votes to temporarily fund the government through a Continuing Resolution (CR). Our communities, including employers and job creators in 39 states, are first-hand proof that federal research funding not only supports local employment, but also offers numerous benefits for businesses, employees, consumers, and supply chains across the country.
As leaders of the country’s business community, we understand the need to reconsider spending priorities in times of economic uncertainty and support reevaluating investments in programs when they do not meet broader policy goals or do not represent efficient programmatic progress. But smart spending decisions require examining the economic impact of federal R&D spending and the real-world experience in communities across the country. Federal support for the American scientific enterprise has been a smart investment that has made the U.S. not only a global leader in science and technology but helped attract the best young scientists from all over the world to contribute to U.S. innovation and economic growth. Since World War II, the federal government has experienced a collective rate of return for its research investments of 140 to 210%. Funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), for example, routinely experiences a 250% return on investment, supporting $94.18 billion in economic activity in FY2025 alone. The investments we make today will have a significant impact on the future of the US economy – according to a recent analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), each additional dollar of federal research spending would increase the present value of GDP by an average of $12.50 over the next 30 years.
The uncertain funding environment over the past 18 months has led to job cuts in communities across the country, a shrinking of graduate programs that train the next generation of scientists and researchers (most of whom enter the private sector workforce), and a widespread effort by other nations to recruit US-based scientists and researchers. These cuts affect not only direct beneficiaries of federal research funding, but indirect beneficiaries, including the construction firms that build research laboratories and manufacturing plants that provide lab supplies and equipment. Today, the US has now lost its position as the top supporter of R&D to China in every major R&D related metric, including in total R&D dollars spent, new patent applications, published papers, and R&D workforce capacity.
While we believe strategic increases to key research programs, including the NIH, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and NASA, would be beneficial, at a minimum, FY27 funding should remain level with FY26. This stability is necessary to protect jobs and promote innovation at a time when our competitors are increasing their own R&D investments and the Administration’s proposed cuts to NIH and NSF in FY27 alone are projected to lead to job losses of more than 150,000 and a $35 billion economic loss across the country.
Since the Coalition relaunched in spring 2025, we have appreciated a continued dialogue with Congress about federal R&D related issues that affect our members and communities. To that end, we want to reiterate our continued concerns about reports of delays to the release of approved agency funding for FY26 and the decline in new awards, especially at NSF, an agency which provides critical support for basic research central to the future of the US economy. We urge you to include legislative language affirming support for the timely release of funding and consideration of grant applications in FY27 appropriations legislation, capping agency use of multi-year awards and freezing facilities and administrative (F&A) cost at FY2024 levels. These provisions would strengthen the legislative branch’s capacity to uphold its vital constitutional role providing regular review and oversight of federal agency spending.
Likewise, we also urge you to support a section adopted by the Senate in the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act of 2027 delaying the rule to revise the “Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards” throughout the length of the CR (Sec. 157). We are deeply concerned about several provisions in the Uniform Guidance that risk politicizing the peer-reviewed grant review process and stymies hard-fought progress to reform F&A costs in a way that works for all stakeholders, protects necessary research infrastructure, and upholds transparency and accountability.
We thank you again for your sustained R&D investments in FY26 funding legislation and look forward to working with you to promote American innovation and leadership in science and technology in FY27. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Business for Federal Research Funding Coalition
CC: Members of the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations
View the Full List of Coalition Members
Popular Resources