Autism Policy and Research

An independent group of autism researchers and advocates, the newly formed Independent Autism Coordinating Committee, is meeting in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, March 19, 2026, to challenge what they call the Trump administration and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ideological takeover of the federal Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee. The move comes weeks after Kennedy named 21 new members to the federal panel, many aligned with his Make America Healthy Again initiative and his long‑held, scientifically debunked claim that vaccines can cause autism. Critics such as Boston University professor emerita Helen Tager‑Flusberg and Autism Science Foundation president Alison Singer say the federal committee has been "hijacked" by vaccine‑skeptic voices and warn that relitigating the vaccine‑autism myth diverts scarce research dollars from understanding real causes of autism and improving supports, particularly for people with profound autism. The independent group includes five former members of the federal committee, two former National Institute of Mental Health directors, other prominent scientists, advocacy leaders and one autistic member; they plan to focus on evidence‑based research priorities like profound autism and communication supports, as HHS abruptly postponed a scheduled federal committee meeting after the shadow panel’s plans became public. Some advocates, including autistic author Eric Garcia, back the new committee’s effort to confront misinformation but criticize its limited autistic representation, highlighting broader tensions over who gets to speak for the autism community in national policy debates.