A newly formed, independent panel of autism experts convened in Washington, D.C., to push back against recent shifts in the federal Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. overhauled its membership.
Calling itself the Independent Autism Coordinating Committee (I-ACC), the group presents itself as a science-focused alternative to the federal panel. Its first meeting came after Kennedy named 21 new members to the IACC, several affiliated with his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative and some linked to the discredited claim that vaccines cause autism.
Members of the independent committee say they were alarmed by the selection process and by what they see as a narrow ideological tilt in the federal appointments. Among the independent panel’s participants are former federal IACC members, two former directors of the National Institute of Mental Health, prominent researchers, representatives of advocacy organizations, and one person who identifies as autistic.
Still, some advocates have criticized the I-ACC for limited autistic representation. Author and autistic advocate Eric Garcia said he wished there were more autistic voices on the panel, while also supporting the group’s effort to counter unscientific claims.
Alison Singer, president of the Autism Science Foundation and a leader of the new committee, said the panel will prioritize research into the causes of autism and ways to better support autistic people. She argued that continuing to re-litigate the debunked vaccine-autism link diverts funding and attention from research into true causes and from services that improve outcomes. Singer highlighted plans to expand study of “profound autism,” meaning individuals who are nonverbal and need high levels of support, and to examine whether common interventions have been adequately tested for that population.
Helen Tager-Flusberg, professor emerita at Boston University and an independent committee member, said she will emphasize the future of language and communication research and explore how technology might help nonverbal autistic people communicate.
The independent meeting was scheduled to coincide with a planned IACC session. After the independent committee announced its plans, HHS postponed the federal meeting without providing a reason; the independent group proceeded with its session.
The new panel follows a recent precedent in which scientists formed independent advisory groups in response to federal changes. For example, the Vaccine Integrity Project at the University of Minnesota was created after Kennedy altered the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and has since worked with professional groups to develop alternate vaccine guidance.
Although the I-ACC plans to prepare reports for Congress and to engage with major funders like the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, its influence is constrained by its unofficial status. Critics note that nothing replaces the formal authority and funding reach of a federal endorsement. Committee members counter that private funders are playing an increasingly large role in autism research, and that independent oversight can help steer both public and private dollars toward scientifically sound priorities.