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Diving briefs:
The White House announced its 2026 budget on Friday. These include those housed in the healthcare programs, particularly those in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, continuing the Trump administration's broadside for biomedical research and public health funding. Reductions are necessary to reduce fraud, waste and abuse at HHS agencies. Many of them support programs the president opposes, including research into gender-affirming care in transgender individuals and the release of information on climate change, White House officials said in budget documents. The president's budget is a wish list and holds no weight in itself, but Congress often takes blueprints into consideration when allocating funds next year.
Dive Insights:
The 40-page request sent to Congress by the Director of Management and Budget Russell Vautt, includes a 23% reduction in government discretionary funding and a 13% increase in overall military spending.
If established, HHS will reduce discretionary funds by 26%.
The budget includes partisan languages about many of the programs currently sponsored by Washington. For example, the budget accuses NIH, the world's primary funder of biomedical research, of “too big to focus” and “radical gender ideology” and “wasteful spending, misleading information, dangerous research… undermining public health.”
Under the budget, the NIH loses almost $18 billion. This is the biggest proposed reduction in the HHS division of blueprints. NIH will also reorganize its various programs into five specific areas. National Institute of Neuroscience and Brain Research. National Institute of Medicine; Research related to the National Institute of Disability Research. and the National Institute of Behavioral Hygiene.
Funding to the National Institute on Minorities and Health Disparities and Centres focusing on nursing research, global health, and alternative medicines will be completely eliminated.
Meanwhile, the CDC loses $3.6 billion. “Duplicate”, “DEI” or “simply unnecessary” programs such as the National Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, the National Center for Environmental Health, and the National Center for Injury Prevention are eliminated.
The CDC's public health preparation program will also be closed as it can be “more effective in some states,” according to the budget.
With regard to other HHS agencies, health resources and service management that function to improve healthcare in underserved populations will lose $1.7 billion, but the Department of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services will lose $1 billion as it focuses on improving mental health in the United States and fighting substance use disorders.
Overseeing the health insurance program for around 150 million Americans, CMS loses nearly $700 million, focusing on areas such as health equity and beneficiary outreach and education.
“This reduction will not affect the provision of benefits to Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries,” the budget states.
HHS' low-income home energy assistance program, which helps American families pay their heating and cooling bills, will be shut down completely.
The only funding increase in HHS's budget is initiatives such as promoting nutrition and exercise in “Maha” or “Make America Health Again”; HHS Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The blueprint corresponds to an attack on science and research, especially after the Trump administration fired thousands of federal health workers earlier this spring, medical and patient advocacy groups said.
“This budget proposal will advance the Trump administration's relentless efforts, decentralizing and undermining public health and healthcare infrastructure, and shifting costs to states that already deal with the critical budget shortages caused by the administration's reckless freezes and cuts.”
“While funding for some key activities, such as surveillance for new infectious diseases, virtually all areas of health can be affected by such large scale reductions in basic infrastructure,” the American Infectious Diseases Association said.
Top Democrats also opposed the proposal, claiming that novel funding for healthcare research would cost people's lives and bring America back to the national stage.
“China President Xi Jinping is undoubtedly excited by Trump's proposal to cut investment in scientific and biomedical research,” D-Wash. Sen. Patty Murray of the company said in a statement Friday.
Meanwhile, Republican leaders in Congress said the budget would improve government's fiscal discipline along with House Speaker Mike Johnson. The plan said it “ensures that all federal taxpayer dollars will be used to serve Americans.”
Trump's budget comes with sharp cuts in government funding in other regions as Congress is looming in the creation of one bill that includes the president's various tax and border priorities. In healthcare, Medicaid in particular is in the chopping block after the Energy and Commerce Committee oversees the Safety Net Insurance Program has been instructed to find $880 billion in savings.
However, Medicaid's popularity among voters, including Republican districts, complicates the debate on program reforms that can reduce profits and registrations. According to Politico, Logjam recently returned to House Gop's leader for another week on May 12th to drive energy and commerce markup.
