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Category: Health/Medical

More Details on Administration Budget Request

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We will continue to provide updates over the next several days and weeks but here are a few more details about the Administration budget request.

NIH

The $41 billion requested at the program level for the agency requests a $5 billion cut below the current year’s program level.  The budget summary argues that NIH “broke the trust of the American people with wasteful spending, misleading information, risky research, and the promotion of dangerous ideologies that undermine public health.”  To partly address that, the Administration is seeking to eliminate three centers or institutes:

  • National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, which, according to the budget documents, is “replete with DEI expenditures”; 
  • Fogarty International Center; and,
  • National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health

ARPA-H

The agency would see its budget decrease from $1.5 billion to $945 million in FY2027.

ED

Additional programs would see lower funding levels or eliminated altogether under the budget proposal, including:

  • TRIO– $0 (currently at $1.19 billion)
  • GEAR-UP– $0 (currently at $388 million)
  • GAANN– $0 (currently at $19.5 million)
  • Federal Work Study– $123 million (currently at $1.24 billion)
  • Institute of Education Sciences (IES)– $261.3 million (currently at $790 million)

NSF

The budget request seeks to cut NSF by nearly 55%, reducing the current budget of $8.8 billion to $4 billion. Within this, there would be major cuts across the board, including: 

  • Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction: $173 million (currently $251 million), a 31% decrease 
  • NSF Total General Science and Basic Research: $3.3 billion (currently $7.1 billion) a 53% decrease
  • STEM education programs: $151 million (currently $1.1 billion), an 86% decrease
  • Within “Research and Related Activities,” funding for the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate is eliminated 
  • The Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate is cut by $658 million, and the Technology, Innovations, and Partnerships (TIP) Directorate is cut by $548 million
  • Consistent with a focus on “maritime dominance,” the request also includes $900.0 million in new mandatory authority to be used for construction of an Antarctic Icebreaking Vessel

Administration Releases FY2027 Budget Proposal

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As expected, the Trump Administration released its FY2027 budget request today.  The initial set of budget documents published this morning can be found here.

Our office will continue to provide further updates as we review the documents but some of the initial proposals are as follows:

Health and Human Services

  • $111.1 billion is proposed for the entire agency, which would represent a cut of $15.8 billion, or 12.5%, below the FY2026 level.
  • For NIH, the Administration is looking to cut the agency by $5 billion, to a total base funding level of approximately $41 billion.

Dept of Education

The Education Department would see a cut of $2.3 billion, or 2.9%, below the FY2026 level, for a total of $76.5 billion.

  • The maximum Pell grant would remain the same at $7395.  Additional funds are being proposed to fill a shortfall in the program
  • Once again, the SEOG program is targeted for elimination.
  • Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) programs would be cut by $354 million
  • Title VI International Education Program would be eliminated (currently funded at $81 million)

National Science Foundation

Like last year’s budget proposal, this year’s also seeks to drastically cut NSF.  Overall, the Administration would fund NSF at $4.0 billion, a cut of $4.8 billion, or nearly 55%.

Department of War

As expected, the Administration calls for a budget of $1.5 trillion for the agency, which would represent an increase of more than $440 billion, or 44%.

One of the priorities for the department is “maritime dominance.”

NASA

NASA would seen an overall decrease of $5.6 billion, or 23%, to $18.8 billion for FY2027.

Within NASA, the Science Mission Directorate would be cut by $3.4 billion, with 40 “low-priority” missions eliminated.

Space Tech would be cut by $297 million and the Office of STEM Engagement, where Space Grant is housed, would be cut by $143 million.

Department of Energy (DOE)

Dept of Energy would see a bump of $4.8 billion, or about 10%, to a total of $53.9 billion

The Office of Science and ARPA-E would both see cuts, with Science slated for a decrease of $1.1 billion and a $150- million cut targeted for ARPA-E.

NOAA

The Administration is once looking to cut NOAA, with the FY2027 budget calling for a $1.6-billion decrease and proposing to fund the agency at $4.0 billion.

Dept of Interior

Interior is being targeted for a cut of $2.3 billion, or nearly 13%, and would receive a total of $15.9 billion in FY2027 under this budget.

Please check back here for additional updates.

Halfway through the fiscal year, NIH lags on grantmaking schedule

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As the halfway point of the federal fiscal year passes, the NIH has only obligated around 15 percent of the estimated $38 billion it has to distribute in grants and contracts, according to analysis by the Association of American Medical Colleges. The 43-day-long government shutdown in October and November is partially responsible for these delays, as well as layoffs and departures of thousands of NIH staff members since the beginning of President Trump’s second term. Despite Congress providing $47.2 billion in total funding to the NIH in FY26, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) had reportedly placed a hold on releasing funds, raising concerns that the agency was not authorizing the appropriated dollars. At a March 17 House oversight hearing on the NIH, Director Jay Bhattacharya assured the subcommittee that the agency will spend every dollar it has received from Congress.

The first half of FY25 also saw a slow start to NIH awards going out the door. This trend quickly sped up by the summer, but in an effort to spend its full budget, the NIH made the unusual shift to fund more large lump-sum payments for many years of research rather than paying for research one year at a time, resulting in fewer grantees.

Trump delays naming new CDC Director

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The White House remains on a time crunch to name a permanent director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Under federal law, Senate-confirmed positions have a 210-day limit on being led by acting replacements, a deadline which passed last night. The Health Department announced yesterday that Dr. Jay Bhattacharya will continue to oversee the CDC until the agency has a permanent director, adding that Health Secretary RFK Jr. and Chris Klomp are leading the search.

President Trump has not yet announced his pick, as the administration struggles to find a nominee that aligns with Secretary Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again agenda, while avoiding enough of his vaccine stances to be able to win Senate confirmation.

The administration’s health agenda received a major blow last week when a federal judge in Massachusetts blocked several of Kennedy’s vaccine policies from being implemented. Ruling on a lawsuit brought by six prominent medical organizations, Judge Brian Murphy said that the federal government had not based its decisions on science in limiting Covid shots and revising the childhood vaccine schedule. The ruling also reversed all decisions made by panelists that Kennedy had appointed to the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices. An appeal is expected, but lawyers for the plaintiffs celebrated this as “a significant victory for public health, evidence-based medicine, the rule of law, and the American people.”

Senate HELP committee to vote on key bills

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 On Thursday, February 26, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee will vote on several significant bills regarding access to quality education and health care.

The bills under consideration include:

  • S. 1602, Mathematical and Statistical Modeling Education Act
  • S. 1558, Understanding the True Cost of College Act of 2025
  • S. 3747, Home School Graduation Recognition Act
  • S. 1782, Charlotte Woodward Organ Transplant Discrimination Prevention Act
  • S. 1552, Living Donor Protection Act of 2025
  • S. 3315, Health Care Cybersecurity and Resiliency Act of 2025

Date: Thursday, February 26, 2026

Time: 10:00 AM ET/ 9:00 AM CT

Location: 430 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Link to watch live