Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
White House Requests 26% Cut To HHS' Discretionary Budget
Stat: Trump Proposes Billions In Cuts To Federal Health Agencies From NIH To CDC
President Trump on Friday proposed massive cuts to the federal government’s health agencies in his 2026 budget request, arguing that Congress should reduce spending by tens of billions from current levels. The request would be a 26% cut to the Department of Health and Human Services’ discretionary budget, which doesn’t include spending on health coverage programs like Medicare and Medicaid. The proposed budget for the 2026 fiscal year, which starts in October, is a request to Congress and is rarely passed without major changes. (Payne, 5/2)
On layoffs and rehires —
CBS News: Worker Safety Agency NIOSH Lays Off Most Remaining Staff
Nearly all of the remaining staff at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health were laid off Friday, multiple officials and laid-off employees told CBS News, gutting programs ranging from approvals of new safety equipment to firefighter health. Much of the work at NIOSH, an arm of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had already stalled after an initial round of layoffs on April 1 at the agency ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Tin, 5/3)
Politico: More Than 15,000 USDA Employees Take Trump's Offer To Resign
At least 15,000 Agriculture Department employees have taken the Trump administration’s offers to resign, according to a readout of a USDA briefing with congressional staff that was shared with POLITICO. The departures represent a drastic contraction of a department that handles a diverse portfolio including flagship federal nutrition programs, food safety, farm loans and rural broadband initiatives. (Brown, 5/3)
KFF Health News: In Reversal, FDA Rehires Staff Tasked With Releasing Public Records
The FDA has rehired at least some workers tasked with releasing public records generated by the agency’s regulatory activities, two employees said. The recall reverses firings carried out roughly a month ago by the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the agency. Workers who process records about medical device and tobacco regulation under the Freedom of Information Act received notices from an FDA official May 1 that they were no longer being fired as part of the department’s mass layoffs, according to the employees and documents reviewed by KFF Health News. (Pradhan, 5/2)
The New York Times: V.A. Mental Health Care Staff, Crowded into Federal Buildings, Raise Patient Privacy Alarms
In a Boston V.A. hospital, six social workers are conducting phone and telehealth visits with veterans from a single, crowded room, clinicians say. In Kansas City, providers are planning patient care while facing each other across narrow, cafeteria-style tables in a large, open space, according to staff members. ... The cramped conditions are the result of President Trump’s decision to rescind remote work arrangements for federal employees, reversing a policy that at the V.A. long predated the pandemic. (Barry and Nehamas, 5/4)
On research cuts —
AP: Cuts Have Eliminated More Than A Dozen US Government Health-Tracking Programs
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s motto is “ Make America Healthy Again,” but government cuts could make it harder to know if that’s happening. More than a dozen data-gathering programs that track deaths and disease appear to have been eliminated in the tornado of layoffs and proposed budget cuts rolled out in the Trump administration’s first 100 days. ... Among those terminated at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were experts tracking abortions, pregnancies, job-related injuries, lead poisonings, sexual violence and youth smoking, the AP found. (Stobbe, 5/4)
ABC News: CDC Allegedly Cancels Emory's HIV Self-Testing Program After Not Enough Workers Left To Oversee It
A local HIV program has allegedly been canceled as a result of funding cuts, firings and layoffs that have recently hit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to a program lead. On April 22, the federal health agency informed Emory University in Atlanta that its large HIV self-testing program, called Together TakeMeHome, was being canceled two years early. (Kekatos, 5/2)
San Francisco Chronicle: UCSF Guaranteed Income Study Halted By Trump Cuts Before It Concluded
Tremon Chandler, a 25-year-old from Ohio, moved to San Francisco four years ago with $3,000 in his pocket to chase his dream of becoming a rapper. Quickly realizing his savings would not go far in California, he slept in his car and crashed with a co-worker before finding housing. But life stabilized when Chandler enrolled as a participant in the Black Economic Equity Movement, a clinical trial run by UCSF, which aimed to measure the impact of guaranteed income on local Black young adults. (Bauman and Lee, 5/4)
The New York Times: Trump Administration Slashes Research Into L.G.B.T.Q. Health
In keeping with its deep opposition to both diversity programs and gender-affirming care for adolescents, the administration has worked aggressively to root out research touching on equity measures and transgender health. But its crackdown has reverberated far beyond those issues, eliminating swaths of medical research on diseases that disproportionately afflict L.G.B.T.Q. people, a group that comprises nearly 10 percent of American adults. (Mueller, 5/4)
