Dive Brief:
The White House released a 2026 budget on Friday that includes steep cuts to healthcare programs, particularly those housed in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, continuing the Trump administration’s broadside against biomedical research and public health funding.
The cuts are necessary to reduce fraud, waste and abuse at HHS agencies, many of which have backed programs opposed by the president, such as researching gender-affirming care for transgender individuals or publishing information on climate change, White House officials said in the budget document.
The president’s budget is a wish list and holds no weight on its own, though Congress often takes the blueprint into account when allocating funding for the upcoming year.
Dive Insight:
The 40-page request sent to Congress by Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought includes a 23% cut to the government’s discretionary funding and a 13% increase in military spending overall.
If enacted, the HHS would have its discretionary funding cut by 26%.
The budget includes partisan language about many programs currently sponsored by Washington. For example, the budget slams the NIH, the foremost funder of biomedical research in the world, as “too big and unfocused” and accuses the agency of promoting “radical gender ideology” and “wasteful spending, misleading information, risky research … that undermine public health.”
Under the budget, the NIH would lose almost $18 billion — the largest proposed cut for an HHS division in the blueprint. The NIH would also reorganize its variety of programs into five specific areas: the National Institute on Body Systems Research; National Institute on Neuroscience and Brain Research; National Institute of General Medical Sciences; National Institute of Disability Related Research; and National Institute on Behavioral Health.
Funding for the National Institute on Minority and Health Disparities and centers focusing on nursing research, global health and alternative medicines would be entirely eliminated.
Meanwhile, the CDC would lose $3.6 billion. Programs that are “duplicative,” “DEI” or “simply unnecessary” would be eliminated, including the National Center for Chronic Diseases Prevention and Health Promotion, the National Center for Environmental Health and the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
The CDC’s public health preparedness programs would also be shut down, as they “can be conducted more effectively by States,” according to the budget.
As for other HHS agencies, the Health Resources and Services Administration, which works to improve healthcare for underserved populations, would lose $1.7 billion, while the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which focuses on improving U.S. mental health and combating substance use disorders, would lose $1 billion.
The CMS, which oversees health insurance programs for some 150 million Americans, would lose almost $700 million, focused in areas like health equity and beneficiary outreach and education.
“This cut will have no impact on providing benefits to Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries,” the budget says.
The HHS’ Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps American families pay their heating and cooling bills, would be entirely shut down.
The HHS’ only funding increase in the budget would be for “MAHA,” or “Make America Healthy Again,” initiatives like promoting nutrition and exercise, a key focus of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Such programs would receive $500 million next year.
The blueprint amounts to an attack against science and research, especially after the Trump administration fired thousands of federal health employees earlier this spring, medical and patient advocacy groups said.
“This budget proposal carries forward the Trump administration’s relentless effort to decentralize and weaken our public health and health care infrastructure, shifting the burden of costs on to states that are already dealing with significant budget shortfalls, much caused by this administration’s reckless funding freezes and cuts,” Anthony Wright, the executive director of consumer health advocacy nonprofit Families USA, said in a statement.
“While funding for some crucial activities, such as emerging infectious diseases surveillance, is maintained, virtually all areas of health are likely to be impacted by such massive cuts to foundational infrastructure,” the Infectious Diseases Society of America said.
Top Democrats also railed against the proposal, arguing slashing funding for healthcare research will cost peoples’ lives and set America back on the nation’s stage.
“China’s President Xi Jinping is no doubt thrilled at Trump’s proposal to halve our investments in scientific and biomedical research,” Senator Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a statement Friday.
Meanwhile, Republican leaders in Congress said the budget would improve the government’s fiscal discipline, with Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., the speaker of the House, saying the plan “ensures every federal taxpayer dollar spent is used to serve the American people, not a bloated bureaucracy or partisan pet project” in a statement.
Trump’s budget comes as Congress remains mired in work on crafting one bill including the president’s various tax and border priorities, along with steep cuts in government funding in other areas. In healthcare, Medicaid in particular is on the chopping block, after the Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the safety-net insurance program, was directed to find $880 billion in savings.
However, Medicaid’s popularity among voters, including in Republican districts, is complicating discussions of program reform that could reduce benefits or enrollment. The logjam recently led House GOP leaders to push Energy and Commerce’s markup of the bill back another week to May 12, according to Politico.
