We are deeply concerned that the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) is shutting the community out of important decisions about autism research and services.

The IACC is a federal committee that helps decide how the government spends hundreds of millions of dollars in autism research funding. Based on the posted agenda, it appears that tomorrow the Committee will vote on a new Strategic Plan: the document that will guide those spending priorities going forward.

Federal law requires the IACC to seek public comment before finalizing the Strategic Plan and publish those comments well before the meeting. But public comments submitted to the IACC between August 15 to August 20 were not even distributed to Committee members until this afternoon. They were not considered for inclusion in the revised draft, nor are they available online. The publicly posted deadline for comment submission was August 20.

The comments at issue include thousands of pages of detailed, constructive input from advocacy organizations and community members. We urge the IACC and its leadership to share all timely comments with Committee members, review them carefully, and meaningfully incorporate them before any vote takes place.

Public input isn’t a formality: it is a basic requirement. All public comment deserves to be heard, and all community feedback deserves real consideration. Our community is broad and often has different priorities, but we agree on these key points: the IACC should adhere to Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) requirements and all voices should be heard.