​The U.S. House Appropriations Committee has approved a bill that would defund the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ); this bill must now be approved by the House and Senate. AHRQ has been "the standard bearer for objective evidence since the 1990s," writes Jeffrey C. Lerner, PhD, president and chief executive officer of ECRI Institute, in a blog post on Philly.com. This is not the first budget proposal to defund AHRQ—in 2012, a similar attempt was made. AHRQ's budget, however, is dedicated to a singular, irreplaceable goal: identifying the best treatments and how errors in healthcare can be prevented. AHRQ gathers data to improve the delivery, safety, and quality of healthcare. "Unlike its peers, AHRQ research is not focused on a single disease or treatment, but on the cross platform and multidimensional aspects of care delivery," writes Paul Wallace, MD, Chair of the Board of Directors for AcademyHealth, on Health Affairs Blog. He continues, "Eliminating funding for AHRQ is short sighted and places patients and their families at inappropriate risk." Likewise, writes Lerner, "Let's not let this happen. An agency that has this track record, that is this important to the health of all Americans regardless of party and regardless of economic status, shouldn't disappear with no public debate. It's your government, your life, and your healthcare system."