If passed, the White House’s budget will slow down medical research and worsen public health problems like the drug overdose crisis.
The Trump administration is hoping to take a sledgehammer to science and public health. In its new proposed budget released this week, the White House is pushing for sweeping cuts to the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other vital agencies.
The White House revealed its budget proposal Friday. Some of the proposal’s lowlights include slashing the NIH and CDC’s budget by nearly 50%. While Congress is unlikely to pass all the cuts, passing just a few could destabilize the country’s public health programs and gravely set back scientific research.
Trump’s proposed budget calls for a total of $163 billion to be cut in non-defense discretionary spending for the 2026 fiscal year, or about 22% from this year’s current budget. It specifically asks for $18 billion to be cut from the NIH (around 40% of its current $47 billion budget), $4 billion from the CDC (roughly 50%), and $4 billion from the National Science Foundation (55%). It’s also pushing for entire divisions within these agencies to be eliminated as a part of a supposed reorganization, including those related to mental health and gun violence prevention. At the same time, the administration is pushing to increase military spending by 13%, to $1.01 trillion.
These proposals are also known as “skinny” budgets, since they don’t cover any single expenditure of the federal government.
