Trump budget proposal aims to cut $5 billion from NIH

Megan Molteni reports on discoveries from the frontiers of genomic medicine, neuroscience, and reproductive tech. She joined STAT in 2021 after covering health and science at WIRED. You can reach Megan on Signal at mmolteni.13.

The White House is asking Congress to cut $5 billion from the National Institutes of Health and to downsize the number of its institutes and centers from 27 to 22 — a plan that is expected to receive a chilly reception from lawmakers from both parties. 

The president’s fiscal year 2027 budget request, released Friday, asks for $41 billion for the NIH and eliminates the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, the Fogarty International Center, and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. The 2027 budget also proposes consolidating two institutes focused on research on drug and alcohol abuse into a new entity called the National Institute of Substance Use and Addiction Research, as well as relocating the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The White House proposal also asks Congress to slash the budget for the Advanced Research Projects (ARPA-H), which funds cutting-edge science, from its current $1.5 billion to $945 million.