Advocacy
A voice for our vision
To realize our mission – to facilitate better health through behavioral change – SBM’s advocacy efforts are rigorous and relentless.
We are dedicated to advancing evidence-based health policies and ensuring the adequate provision of research dollars – an increasingly vital part of our work as budgets tighten everywhere.
SBM's Health Policy Ambassadors build relationships with federal lawmakers and their staffs, engaging them to make evidence-based decisions regarding specific policies. Our Health Policy Ambassadors help SBM—and our members’ evidence-based science—move from being a visitor in lawmakers’ offices to being an integral part of lawmakers’ decision-making through regular contact and relationship building. Ambassadors are experts on a specific issue and/or live in the relevant policymaker’s district. Ambassadors educate lawmakers about the relevant scientific evidence and the field of behavioral medicine. Likewise, lawmakers educate ambassadors about their needs on specific issues and the policymaking process.
SBM releases member-written health policy statements and signs on to policy position statements and letters from like-minded organizations. Recent position statements have highlighted the importance of cancer screenings and healthy school food options, and one called for increased regulation of e-cigarettes.
Policy Priorities
Child Nutrition
Our Child Nutrition Ambassadors educate lawmakers about evidence-based ways to ensure children from all income levels have access to and actually eat healthy foods.
Example policy outcomes:
- Maintain and strengthen healthy school meal standards (e.g., Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act)
- Protect or increase funding for programs such as SNAP and WIC
Climate Change and Health
Our Climate Change and Health Ambassadors educate lawmakers about evidence-based behavioral ways to mitigate climate change and its adverse effects on health, particularly for vulnerable populations.
Example policy outcomes:
- Increase federal funding for climate, health, and behavioral research
- Increase funding and incentives for active transportation infrastructure (e.g., bike lanes) that benefits both health and the climate
Infectious Disease Prevention and Care
Our Infectious Disease Prevention and Care Ambassadors educate lawmakers about evidence-based ways to reduce or eliminate infectious diseases, and to properly care for those infected or at high risk.
Example policy outcomes:
- Uphold the Congressionally required and science-backed tenets of the NIH Strategic Plan, including the Congressional mandate to focus on “prevention of health conditions”
- Ensure that health insurance plans cover the HIV prevention medication PrEP and cannot discriminate against individuals using PrEP, such as by passing the PrEP Access and Coverage Act
- Understand that through rigorous scientific research and extensive testing, vaccines have consistently proven their ability to save lives, prevent illness, and protect entire communities.
NIH Funding
Example policy outcomes:
- Fund NIH’s base budget with at least $51.303 billion in fiscal year 2026
- Assert Congress’s constitutional budgetary authority to ensure NIH grants are not paused, frozen, terminated, or otherwise disrupted
- Ensure that any NIH restructuring includes high-level behavioral science emphasis across all institutes and centers
Non-pharmacological Pain Management/Opioid Misuse
Our Non-pharmacological Pain Management/Opioid Misuse Ambassadors educate lawmakers about evidence-based ways to best manage pain and combat opioid misuse.
Example policy outcomes:
- Increase ACA reimbursement for evidence-based behavioral interventions, such as behavioral counseling, for patients with chronic pain and/or opioid use disorders
- Increase Medicare coverage for Medication Assisted Treatment for opioid use disorders and ensure behavioral components are an essential component of this treatment