Trump’s Budget Again Calls for Billions in NIH Cuts
Read the full article in Medpage Today
Proposed cuts of $5 billion in NIH funding and $129 million to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) were included in the Trump administration’s fiscal year 2027 budget.
In all, “the budget requests $111.1 billion in discretionary budget authority for HHS for 2027, a $15.8 billion or 12.5% decrease from the 2026 enacted level,” according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) document released Friday.
For the second year in a row, the administration is attempting to reorganize the department by consolidating several HHS agencies under a new umbrella sub-agency known as the Administration for a Healthy America (AHA).
“Within AHA, the budget includes $19 million to expand access to nutrition services at health centers by integrating nutritional care and expanding access to healthy food and nutrition education,” the OMB document noted. However, Congress rejected the AHA idea last year, and it is unclear whether it will be any more popular this time around. Congress turned away the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to the NIH last year as well.
As part of the reorganization to form the AHA, the proposed budget would eliminate the $287 million Title X family planning program, as well as Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Programs, Rural Hospital Flexibility Program grants, and Rural Hospital Provider Assistance Programs. It would also eliminate all chronic disease prevention and health promotion activities with the CDC except for programs related to cancer prevention and control and Alzheimer’s disease, according to a separate Budget in Brief document issued by HHS. Youth Violence Prevention and Firearm Injury and Mortality Prevention Research programs also would be eliminated.
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Research!America, a health research advocacy group, called the proposal “a giant step backward for American health and innovation.”
“While the president’s budget request would bolster funding for AI and other technologies, it unfortunately would allow China and other competitors to do an end run around the U.S. as we abandon our lead in the sciences,” said Mary Woolley, the group’s president and CEO, in a statement. “From cutting biomedical research at NIH to slashing other STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] funding at NSF [the National Science Foundation], this budget would make our 250th year one of restricting, rather than realizing, our full potential.”
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