Draft Budget Proposal Would Cut HHS Federal Health Programs by One-Third

A draft budget proposal circulating among federal officials suggests a cut in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ discretionary spending by as much as one-third, or tens of billions of dollars, according to public health experts familiar with its contents. Specifically, the National Institutes of Health, the world’s largest funder of biomedical research, would see its budget shrink to $27.3 billion, from $48.5 billion. The draft plan also outlines a reorganization of its many agencies and offices and calls for eliminating or slowly decreasing dozens of programs. Specifically, it would reduce the NIH’s 27 institutes and centers to eight. Many institutes that specialize in distinct diseases — involving, for example, the heart and lungs, diabetes and skeletal and skin conditions — would be combined. In addition, programs such as Head Start, a development program for more than half a million of the country’s neediest children, as well as programs focused on teen pregnancy and family planning, Lyme disease and global health, would be affected.