White House Budget Cuts Science, Medical Research, and Disease Prevention

Cuts Proposed for Spending in Science and Medicine

As we discussed last week, the White House budget calls for major spending cuts in anti-poverty programs — you can read more about that here:

Trump’s Budget Details Released

This week we’re looking at cuts to spending in science and medicine. The ax falls on many programs, including:

• The National Cancer Institute — $1 billion
• The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute — $575 million
• The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — $838 million
• The National Institutes of Health — $5.8 billion
• The National Science Foundation — $776 million
• U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — $1.2 billion
• Office of Science at the Department of Energy — $900 million
• Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy — 69% cut in funding, 28% reduction in staffing
• CDC programs on vaccine-preventable and respiratory diseases, like influenza and measles — $82 million
• CDC programs on HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections, and prevent of tuberculosis — $186 million
• Chronic disease prevention programs at the CDC that work on diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and obesity — $222 million

The budget also calls for termination of many research programs, including:

• The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Project Agency -Energy (ARPA-E)
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s grant and education program
• NASA’s Office of Education along with with five NASA Earth Science missions

There are healthcare changes in this part of the budget, as well:

• Planned Parenthood would be barred from receiving any Health and Human Services funding
• Funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides insurance coverage for 5.6 million children, loses 20% for the next fiscal year.

Who’s for and against?

Advocates for the cuts point to funding provided by agencies for research overhead. They argue that these cuts put the taxpayer first by eliminating wasteful spending.

The CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science estimates that the budget would cut about 17% of the overall investment in federal research in the sciences — a cut that would have long-term economic implications since much of this research leads to economic growth.

Dr. Tom Frieden, Director of the CDC tweeted this:

There are many more cuts in this arena. Read more here:

• Trump budget seeks huge cuts to science and medical research, disease prevention
• Trump budget would slash science programmes across government

**Tell Congress what you think!
**Thanks for reading! Text RESIST to 50409 to tell your representatives what you think about this, or see what else is happening this week:

• Trump’s Budget Details Released
• Fast-Track the Hiring of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officers and Agents