Trump administration pulls $300M in health funding from Virginia

The big picture: HHS, the federal health department, terminated at least 21 grants in Virginia early, per an Axios review of the agency's spreadsheet.

• Those cuts, announced late last month, target the Virginia Department of Health, the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, VCU, Virginia Tech and UVA.
• The terminations for VDH — which experienced the heaviest gutting — and DBHDS were due to the Trump administration cutting COVID-era funding nationwide, agency spokespersons told Axios.
• The universities lost research grants largely focused on women and LGBTQ+ people.

Between the lines: Though Congress appropriated some of the grants during the pandemic, the funding supported programs beyond curtailing the virus.

• VDH's grants helped cover measles vaccinations, track bird flu and prepare for future health threats.
• The substance use and mental health grants for DBHDS went, in part, toward crisis call centers, substance use disorder prevention and recovery support.

Zoom in: Meanwhile, the federal health research cuts could lead to Virginia experiencing $238 million in economic losses, per the Science & Community Impacts Mapping Project (SCIMaP).

• That includes at least $44 million in the Richmond area.

What they're saying: "It's a huge crisis for universities," SCIMaP co-lead Alyssa Sinclair, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, tells Axios.

• Sinclair says there will likely be budget adjustments to make up the difference, which can look like increasing tuition, freezing hiring, not investing in future research and reducing Ph.D. student admissions.
• "No one really has a good solution to it," Sinclair says.
• VCU spokesperson David Oglethorpe tells Axios it's likely they won't have a full understanding of the impact for a while.

Here's a closer look at what these cuts look like:

Virginia Department of Health

Funding loss: HHS reports it's over $255 million, about 30% of the total grant. VDH says it's $219 million but didn't immediately respond to Axios' questions by time of publication about the gap.

Jobs affected: 13 full-time jobs, 517 contract positions.

What they're saying: A spokesperson tells Axios they're determining whether other funding sources are available.

Virginia Department of Behavioral Health

Funding loss: $34 million, or nearly 50% of the grant.

Jobs affected: At least 13, per spokesperson Lauren Cunningham.

What they're saying: Cunningham tells Axios they're transitioning those employees to another state government position or connecting them with career services.

VCU

Funding loss: Over $529,000, per HHS, but a spokesperson tells Axios that VCU has received stop-work or termination notices for about 20 total projects, with an impact of nearly $10.7 million.

• Those 20 projects include researching how to make a tuberculosis drug more affordable.

What the grants went toward: A center focused on helping women in STEM fields and research into disordered eating behaviors in transgender youth.

Jobs affected: Unclear.

Virginia Tech

Funding loss: Over $346,000, per HHS, but Virginia Tech said 37 grants totaling $21.2 million have been terminated or ordered to stop.

What the grants went toward: Impact of stress on domestic violence among young bisexual adults and a program for students interested in behavioral or engineering research.

Jobs affected: "A couple dozen people," but no one has been laid off, a spokesperson tells Axios.

UVA

Funding loss: Nearly $219,000.

What the grant went toward: Autism research focused on late diagnoses in women and transgender or nonbinary people.

Jobs affected: Unclear.