At HHS, proposed cuts to medical research and public health programs

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Friday called for cutting discretionary health spending by about 26% in fiscal 2026 and slashing medical research, public health and support service programs.

The White House’s “skinny budget” request, released by the Office of Management and Budget, seeks $93.8 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services, or a decrease of about $33 billion over the fiscal 2025 enacted level, according to an OMB budget document.

The request asks Congress to cut funding for several subagencies while calling for new funding for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Administration for a Healthy America. The agency, established earlier this year, would see $500 million to focus on issues related to nutrition, exercise, environmental issues, food and drug safety and “over-reliance” on medication.

The White House proposed decreased spending across other HHS agencies, with the largest funding cuts aimed at the National Institutes of Health. Trump requested almost $18 billion in cuts to the medical research agency, which received about $47 billion in fiscal 2025.

“The Budget proposes to reform NIH and focus NIH research activities in line with the President’s commitment to Make America Healthy Again, instead of foreign interests,” a supplemental budget document states. The document criticizes NIH’s grantmaking to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and funding of studies related to transgender youth.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would see a cut of about $3.6 billion under the proposal, compared with $9.2 billion enacted. The plan seeks to consolidate funding for activities related to infectious disease and opioids, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections and tuberculosis into one $300 million program.

The proposal would cut funding for previously funded CDC programs, including the National Center for Chronic Diseases Prevention and Health Promotion, the National Center for Environmental Health, the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, the Global Health Center, the Public Health Preparedness and Response, and the Preventive Health and Human Services Block Grant.

Funding for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would drop by $674 million under the proposal, which would eliminate previous funding related to health equity; diversity, equity and inclusion; and education related to the 2022 reconciliation law.

If enacted as written, the budget would eliminate the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response Hospital Preparedness Program, which is currently funded at $240 million.

The document asks to reduce funds for the activities previously performed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Policy Quality by $129 million. The agency’s functions are now under the HHS Office of Strategy.

The budget request criticizes previous work related to climate change and gender-affirming care as being “wholly unrelated to MAHA” and calls to eliminate the digital health portfolio and cut grants and contracts that are not related to statistics.

Trump’s proposal would eliminate funding to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, calling it “unnecessary” and stating that the administration would “support low-income individuals through energy dominance, lower prices, and an America First economic platform.” The program is currently funded with $4 billion in emergency funding.

The proposal would also reduce funding for the Refugee and Unaccompanied Alien Children Programs by almost $2 billion.

It seeks to reduce funds to the Community Services Block Grant by $770 million, citing equity and green energy-related programming that does not align with the president’s agenda. The plan calls for reducing funds to Preschool Development Grants by $315 million because of issues related to DEI and “racial equity.”

Many of the suggested spending cuts and policy changes align with a preliminary version of the request, known as a passback, obtained in April.

The budget request did not provide numbers for the Food and Drug Administration. The passback, however, called for $2.9 billion in discretionary budget authority for the FDA. The FDA received about $3.5 billion in discretionary budget authority in the final fiscal 2025 stopgap law.

The budget also did not specify funding levels for Head Start, a school readiness program under the Administration for Children and Families. The passback had proposed eliminating funding for the program.

Kennedy’s new agency will take on activities previously associated with other HHS agencies.

The budget requests $6 billion for programs previously under the Health Resources and Services Administration and $5.7 billion for programs under the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. These activities will now fall under AHA.

The proposal would consolidate former HRSA programs related to HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, health workforce and family planning. The plan would also eliminate funding for the Sexual Risk Avoidance Education Program and Teen Pregnancy Prevention program.

It would eliminate programming related to drug “harm reduction” under former SAMHSA programs and reduce funding to Mental Health Programs of Regional and National Significance, Substance Use Prevention Programs of Regional and National Significance, and the Substance Use Treatment Programs of Regional and National Significance.

The request also seeks unspecified reduced funding levels for the HHS Office of Minority Health and Office on Women’s Health, which have been moved from the Office of Assistant Secretary of Health to AHA under the reorganization.

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in a statement Friday that she had “serious objections” to the proposed funding cuts to LIHEAP and biomedical research programs.

“Ultimately, it is Congress that holds the power of the purse,” said Collins.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing on the HHS budget with Kennedy on May 14.