The Trump administration is seeking to deeply slash budgets for federal health programs, a roughly one-third cut in discretionary spending by the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a preliminary budget document obtained by The Washington Post.<\/p>\n
The HHS budget draft, known as a \u201cpassback,\u201d offers the first full look at the health and social service priorities of President Donald Trump\u2019s Office of Management and Budget as it prepares to send his 2026 fiscal year budget request to Congress. It shows how the Trump administration plans to reshape the federal health agencies that oversee food and drug safety, manage the nation\u2019s response to infectious-disease threats and drive biomedical research.<\/p>\n
The 64-page document calls not only for cuts, but also a major shuffling and restructuring of health and human service agencies.<\/p>\n
Agencies are allowed to appeal to HHS for changes but have been told they cannot change the bottom line, according to a federal health official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.<\/p>\n
While Congress often ignores the president\u2019s budget request, this has not been a typical transition to a new administration. Trump and his allies in Congress have made clear they want to smash the status quo by drastically reducing the size of the federal government and scrubbing it of programs and research efforts seen as wasteful or contrary to administration priorities.<\/p>\n
The administration already has downsized HHS by about one-fourth of its workforce, with about 20,000 imminent departures since Trump took office. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff who worked on programs to prevent drowning and gun violence, improve worker safety and test for sexually transmitted illnesses and hepatitis were among those laid off.<\/p>\n
National Institutes of Health staffers who specialize in managing scientific funding have been ordered to terminate contracts and cancel hundreds of grants that fund research on topics such as vaccine hesitancy, transgender health and covid.<\/p>\n
HHS had a discretionary budget of about $121 billion in fiscal 2024, but under the Trump administration\u2019s preliminary outline, it would see a decrease to $80 billion.<\/p>\n
The proposed cuts are aimed at some of the prevention-focused health-care efforts HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he wants to prioritize, said Anand Parekh, chief medical adviser at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C., think tank.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are the efforts that try to get ahead of health-care problems,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can expect the costs of the Medicare and Medicaid program just to go up. That\u2019s the shortsightedness of reducing the sliver of the budget that is discretionary when that is the main opportunity you have to reduce health burden in America and get ahead of health problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spokespeople for the White House and HHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration is seeking to deeply slash budgets for federal health programs, a roughly one-third cut in discretionary spending by the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a preliminary budget document obtained by The Washington Post.<\/p>\n
The HHS budget draft, known as a \u201cpassback,\u201d offers the first full look at the health and social service priorities of President Donald Trump\u2019s Office of Management and Budget as it prepares to send his 2026 fiscal year budget request to Congress. It shows how the Trump administration plans to reshape the federal health agencies that oversee food and drug safety, manage the nation\u2019s response to infectious-disease threats and drive biomedical research.<\/p>\n