Here’s how Trump’s proposed 2026 budget could impact CDC, NIH

On May 2, President Donald Trump released a 2026 budget request that proposed sharp cuts to health funding across the board and reorganization throughout major healthcare agencies.

Here are some of the healthcare highlights.

NIH hit hardest. If this proposal comes to be, the NIH would lose nearly $18 billion, cutting its total funding to $27 billion—the biggest proposed cut of any agency.

It would also be reorganized into five new focus areas: the National Institute on Body Systems Research; the National Institute on Neuroscience and Brain Research; the National Institute of General Medical Sciences; the National Institute of Disability Related Research; and the National Institute on Behavioral Health.

“NIH research would align with the president’s priorities to address chronic disease and other epidemics, implementing all executive orders, and eliminating research on climate change, radical gender ideology, and divisive racialism,” the budget read.

The budget would also eliminate funding for several NIH programs, including the National Institute on Minority and Health Disparities.

“Eliminating these efforts would reverse decades of progress,” Thomas Frieden, who ran the CDC under President Barack Obama, told the New York Times.

CDC cut by nearly half. The CDC would lose nearly $3.6 billion, cutting its total funding to about $4 billion. Many CDC programs would be merged or cut altogether in an effort to end programs that focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as any programs the administration deems “duplicative” or “simply unnecessary,” the budget read.

Cut programs would include the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, a team that was already gutted during recent Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) layoffs, NPR reported in April.

“The budget refocuses CDC on emerging and infectious disease surveillance, outbreak investigations, preparedness and response, and maintaining the nation’s public health infrastructure,” the budget read.

Other cuts. CMS would lose almost $700 million related to “health equity-focused activities and Inflation Reduction Act-related outreach and education activities.”

The National Science Foundation, which doles out research grants, would have its funding cut by $4.7 billion, which is over half its current total budget.

The budget would also reduce funding for the HHS Office of Minority Health. But the administration does not appear to be proposing eliminating it entirely; doing so would be potentially illegal because it was authorized by the Affordable Care Act, Healthcare Dive previously reported.