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Category: Health/Medical

Proposed Uniform Guidance Changes

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On May 29, 2026, the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published a proposed rule in the Federal Register that would substantially revise 2 C.F.R. Part 200, commonly referred to as the “Uniform Guidance”, which applies to federal grants, cooperative agreements and other types of federal assistance funding.

If finalized, the proposed rule would significantly impact federal awards, including requiring political appointee review of grant decisions, restrictions on who applicants may work with, expanded rights the federal government has in modifying or terminating awards, and much more. Because these changes have significant implications for federally funded research, the University and UW Medicine are compiling an institutional response to the federal government. 

Please use the University’s “Uniform Guidance – Proposed Changes” form (UW NetID required) to provide your comments to University leadership to support the University’s official response to OMB. Your feedback and examples of impacts will inform our official UW response, and comments are still being accepted.

As a member of the public, you may also comment directly to OMB; however, OMB will consider only one comment per institution. Therefore, if you choose to submit comments to OMB in an individual capacity, you should state your experience generically (e.g. a faculty member in at a large public university) but do not mention your affiliation with the University of Washington.

Additional analysis from APLU can be found here: Summary of Uniform Guidance Issues.

Trump nominates Dr. Erica Schwartz for CDC Director

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President Trump has named Dr. Erica Schwartz as his latest pick to lead the CDC. If the Senate confirms her, she will be the agency’s fourth leader in just over a year. Dr. Schwartz is a physician and vaccine supporter, the latest signal that the administration is distancing itself from HHS Secretary RFK Jr.’s vaccine skepticism in the lead up to the midterms. Dr. Schwartz served as deputy surgeon general during the first Trump administration, and is a retired rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

President Trump also announced Sean Slovenski as deputy CDC director and chief operating officer, Dr. Jennifer Shuford as deputy director and chief medical officer, and Dr. Sara Brenner as a senior counselor to Secretary Kennedy.

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.