AAU President Mary Sue Coleman sent a letter to the members of the 116th Congress to highlight the vital efforts of America’s leading research universities to lead the fight against COVID-19 and to underscore the importance of federal support for our research universities and students. AAU has estimated the collective near-term financial impact of the pandemic on our 63 American member universities to be more than $8 billion and anticipates that figure will only increase if institutions are unable to resume near-normal on-campus operations this fall. President Coleman asked the members of Congress to consider the pandemic relief recommendations AAU developed with APLU, AAMC, and ACE and others that will help fortify the government-university partnership that has made possible the world’s greatest leaps in medicine and science.