Guest Voice: Funding cuts for MS research tamper with our hope

Denise Schnieders is a wife, mom, teacher, volleyball coach, and passionate advocate living with multiple sclerosis (MS). Since her diagnosis, she’s become a powerful voice in the MS community, raising awareness, advocating for better healthcare policy, and pushing for more research funding. Through her platform, MSdopaminedressed, Schnieders shares the realities of life with MS, proving that chronic illness may slow her down, but it will never silence her voice or steal her fight.

I live with multiple sclerosis. That sentence carries the weight of uncertainty, daily physical challenges, and the emotional strain of navigating a chronic and often invisible illness. But for years, it’s also been accompanied by something more powerful: hope. Hope powered by science, relentless researchers, and progress made possible by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Multiple Sclerosis Research Program, part of Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP).

Denise Schnieders attends the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s Public Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., coordinated with Hill Day 2025, in late March. (Photo by Denise Schnieders)

Before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first disease-modifying therapy (DMT) for MS in 1993, an MS diagnosis meant uncertainty, fear, and a lack of options. Patients were often told to “wait and see.”

The development of the more than 20 DMTs that currently exist came in large part through funding from the NIH. In the past 30 years, these therapies have transformed an MS diagnosis by reducing relapses and delaying disability. And every DMT is the direct result of decades of research and advocacy.

Research turned the tide for MS, transforming a diagnosis once filled with fear into one fueled by hope, which is proof that investing in science can create a future that patients can believe in.

But that hope was dealt a devastating blow earlier this year. In March, Congress passed a 2025 spending bill (called a continuing resolution) that cut over half of the funding of the CDMRP, including the entirety of funding for the Multiple Sclerosis Research Program. The NIH is facing additional cuts in the 2026 budget, which could further limit its ability to help fund the CDMRP.

These decisions undermine decades of progress and directly affect more than 1 million people living with MS in the United States. The Multiple Sclerosis Research Program wasn’t just a line item. It was a lifeline.

Treatments have changed the course of this disease for people like me, slowing progression, reducing relapses, and helping preserve independence.

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MS doesn’t pause when funding dries up. It continues its assault on the brain and spinal cord, and without continued research, we’ll fall behind. These cuts don’t just delay progress; they delay hope. They stall innovation. They tell people with MS that our futures are expendable.

It’s not too late to act. The 2026 fiscal year is on the horizon, and we must fight to reinstate these essential programs. We must show our elected officials that real lives are on the line, and research isn’t optional. It’s urgent and necessary.

To those in power: Restore funding to the Multiple Sclerosis Research Program now. Reinvest in our future. Give back hope to those of us who need it more than ever. Without research, there is no progress. And without progress, there is no cure.

To submit your own Guest Voice for publication on Multiple Sclerosis News Today, please email your idea to our columns manager at [email protected] with the following included in the subject line: “Guest Voice: Multiple Sclerosis News Today.”

Advocates for patients, caregivers, and families living with multiple sclerosis gather for a group photo during the Hill Day policy conference in March. The color orange symbolizes MS awareness. (Courtesy of Denise Schnieders)