Illustration: Allie Carl / Axios
The latest Trump administration budget proposal provides new details on efforts to slash funding for the National Institutes of Health and consolidate its divisions.
Why it matters: NIH has long had bipartisan support in Congress, though the agency's role in the pandemic response and its connections to so-called gain of function research have fueled GOP calls for change.
What's inside: The budget document released late Friday provides more detail on a topline proposal to cut NIH funding by about $18 billion, or roughly 40%.
- The 27 institutes and centers would be consolidated into just eight.
- Only the National Cancer Institute, National Institute on Aging and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases would remain in their current form.
- House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans last year called for consolidating the 27 institutes and centers into 15.
What they're saying: Congressional Democrats quickly slammed the proposal.
- "America's research enterprise has long been the envy of the world.… But President Trump is now proposing to destroy it by nearly halving the NIH's budget and gutting all kinds of cutting-edge scientific research," said Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The other side: "This restructuring will create efficiencies within NIH that will allow the agency to focus on true science, and coordinate research to make the best use of federal funds," the administration budget document states.
- There was no public response from leading congressional Republicans to the latest proposal.
Between the lines: The budget also calls for a focus on understanding "the root causes of autism," a priority of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
- It calls for continuing a policy to cap "indirect costs" at 15%, a controversial move that opponents have called another de facto cut to NIH grants to universities and other recipients.
- The proposal has drawn criticism from Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins.
