The Trump administration included proposed cuts of $5 billion in NIH funding and $129 million in the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Budget for fiscal year 2027.
Overall, according to an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) document released Friday, “the budget requests $111.1 billion in discretionary budget authority for HHS for 2027, a decrease of $15.8 billion, or 12.5%, from the 2026 enacted level.”
For the second consecutive year, 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 the AHA, the budget includes $19 million to increase access to nutrition services at health centers by integrating nutrition care and expanding access to healthy eating and nutrition education,” the OMB document states. However, Congress AHA rejected the idea last year, and it is unclear whether it will be more popular this time. Congress last year also rejected the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to the NIH.
As part of the reorganization to create the AHA, the proposed budget would eliminate the $287 million Title According to a separate one, it would also end all chronic disease prevention and health promotion activities with the CDC except for programs related to cancer prevention and control and Alzheimer’s disease. budget in brief document Issued by HHS. Youth violence prevention and firearm injury and death prevention research programs would also be eliminated.
All of these programs are being cut “to align with the Administration’s priorities, streamline the bureaucracy, restore a clear division of responsibilities between the federal and state government, and save taxpayer money,” the Budget in Brief document says.
The $5 billion proposed cut to NIH is approximately 10% of the agency’s total budget, and includes the elimination of three sub-agencies outlined in the OMB document:
- National Institute on Minority Health and Health DisparitiesWhich is “replete with DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) spending.”
- Fogarty International Center“Which has funded master’s degree programs in foreign countries like Serbia and India at the expense of Americans.”
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health“Which has funded research on ‘racial and ethnic disparities’ in back pain treatments and ‘mindfulness-based interventions’ on HIV risk.”
According to the OMB document, AHRQ is needed to cut $129 million because “much of AHRQ’s research on the quality, safety, and affordability of health care delivery is redundant or duplicative compared to research conducted at NIH.” “The budget reorganizes prioritized AHRQ statistical activities into the new HHS Strategy Office and eliminates the harmful digital health portfolio,” including “a study on how Medicaid gender affirmation care coverage policies affected the use of hormones and gender reassignment surgery among beneficiaries.”
The proposal also cuts $356 million from the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), which plans for pandemics and other climate and health emergencies. “Additional responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic caused ASPR to stray away from its mission of coordinating the federal emergency response in the United States, creating confusion about ASPR’s role in preparedness and response,” the OMB document said.
Instead, “the budget refocuses on ASPR” through developing therapeutic measures, maintaining critical supplies in the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) for emergencies, and “strengthening domestic pharmaceutical resilience through the procurement and maintenance of the Strategic Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Reserve”.
OMB document criticizes ASPR for distribution of emergency COVID supplies to states. “Federal policymakers never envisioned that the SNS would equip every state in the event of an extended pandemic,” it said. “SNS is the supplier of last resort to the federal government, state, local and tribal governments.”
A large portion of the ASPR cuts – $240 million – comes from eliminating the Hospital Preparedness Program, “whose activities can be supported by CDC’s Public Health Emergency Preparedness Program with stronger state efforts.”
Some of the increases included in the HHS budget proposal appear to be related to the administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) effort. In addition to the $19 million for health centers, an additional $57 million is being added to “strengthen national nutrition and food security by removing unsafe chemicals from America’s food supply, modernizing and streamlining (FDA’s) regulatory capacity by supporting artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, and developing alternatives to animal testing.”
The CDC also includes an additional $55 million for “new infection prevention and healthy and safe food initiatives” to address antimicrobial-resistant infections and “pervasive micro- and nano-plastics to ensure food and water are safe and clean for all Americans.”
Another $28 million is added for two telehealth-related programs, and $19 million is added “to implement a new prevention innovation program” for Native American tribes.
One thing that is not included in the budget proposal is any mention of pay raises for civilian employees at HHS and other federal agencies. The only salary increase mentioned was 5% to 7% increase For members of the military.
Health groups immediately opposed the proposal. Claire Coleman, president and CEO of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, said in a statement that eliminating the Title “Title
The health research advocacy group Research!America called the proposal “a huge step forward for American health and innovation.”
Mary Woolley, the group’s president and CEO, said, “Although the President’s budget request will boost funding for AI and other technologies, unfortunately it will allow China and other competitors to race around the US as we give up our lead in science.” in a statement. “From cuts to biomedical research at the NIH to cuts to other STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) funding at the NSF (National Science Foundation), this budget will make our 250th year limited rather than realizing our full potential.”
Kayla Hancock, director of Protect Our Care’s public health project, said that “Donald Trump’s budget plan is a roadmap to dismantling virtually every public health protection and inviting deadly preventable diseases like measles.”
Hancock said, “Trump’s proposed cuts to NIH alone would more than double the lost economic activity for working people, while the potential cost to our public health in lost scientific research and innovation is off the charts.” in a statement.
Another set of cuts – amounting to more than $900 million for activities related to ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic – drew sharp criticism from Anna Persson, MD, president of the HIV Medicine Association. “The President’s proposal to cut HIV public health programs is dangerous, at a time when states are already making unprecedented cuts to HIV services due to rising costs,” Person said. “Destroying the HIV prevention program that funds HIV surveillance and testing in every state would put lives at risk and make communities more vulnerable to HIV outbreaks.”
