Trump plans for deep budget cuts at HHS, with bigger reductions at NIH, CDC

Under plans detailed by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OBM), funding to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) could be cut by more than 30% as part of the Trump administration's sweeping reorganisation of key health agencies. The preliminary OBM memo, dated April 10, was reported in a number of media outlets.

While HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has already cut the department’s workforce by 10,000 staff, the OBM document is the first to show how this will be reflected in its activities and priorities. The proposal recommends slashing the overall HHS discretionary funding to around $80.4 billion, down from $116.8 billion enacted in the fiscal 2025 budget.

Cuts at NIH, CDC

The slimmed down budget includes funding cuts of over 40% for both the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The NIH's budget would shrinkfrom about $47 billion to $27 billion, with several centres, including the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities eliminated, cutting the agency's 27 existing research institutes and centres down to just eight.

Meanwhile, the CDC's work would focus more narrowly on infectious diseases and preparedness for public health threats, including merging the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response into the agency. Other parts of the CDC would be abolished, including nearly the entire Prevention and Public Health Fund, funding for the agency's Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative and its domestic HIV/AIDS prevention and surveillance activities, as well as the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

No final decisions

"Many difficult decisions were necessary to reach the funding level provided in this [budget proposal]," OMB wrote in the document, although changes may be made ahead of it being sent to Congress. OMB spokesperson Rachel Cauley said that "no final funding decisions have been made."

The proposal also suggests eliminating funding for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Health Resources and Services Administration, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and Administration for Community Living, along with a number of other smaller programmes. Some of the work done at these agencies would continue under the division dubbed Administration for a Healthy America (AHA), which would have a budget of about $14 billion, although this is far below the collective amount allocated to the affected agencies in past years.