The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee’s minority staff report, scheduled to be released Tuesday and authored by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, says that in the first three months of this year, the Trump administration cut $2.7 billion in National Institutes of Health funding for research. That figure is much higher than some separate estimates that previously suggested targeted grant terminations have affected more than $1.8 billion in NIH funding.
The new report, which describes the Trump administration’s actions as a “war on science,” is based on analyses conducted by Senate HELP Committee minority Staff, involving NIH grant funding data as well as HHS self-reported spreadsheets and other sources.
The 15-page report warns that the administration’s actions “will lead to fewer breakthroughs for diseases like cancer, a weaker public health response against future infectious disease threats, and a continued decline in trust in public institutions,” and it calls for an end to the research funding cuts.
The committee is publishing the report the day before it will hold a hearing with US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to discuss President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for the US Department of Health and Human Services for fiscal year 2026.
One analysis finds that federal funding to support cancer research was cut 31% from January through March compared with the same timeframe last year.
“The American people do not want us to slash cancer research in order to give more tax breaks for billionaires,” Sanders said in an emailed statement about the new report.
“Let’s be clear. Trump’s war on science is not making America healthy again. It is making Americans and people throughout the world sicker,” he said. “This must end. Congress, the scientific community, and the American people must stand up and fight back.”
According to the new report, some of the canceled NIH grants were intended to support not only cancer research but Alzheimer’s disease research, cardiovascular disease studies, diabetes science and infectious disease clinical trials.
The categories of infectious disease, mental and behavioral health, neurology and aging, maternal and reproductive health, and cancer account for nearly $700 million of NIH funding that has been terminated, according to the new report.
The Trump administration has been conducting a restructuring of HHS as well as a review of funding, resulting in the abrupt pause or cancellation of some NIH research grants. Part of the restructuring involves consolidating the 28 agencies of HHS into 15 new divisions, including the new Administration for a Healthy America. The transformation of HHS also shifts the department’s focus to addressing chronic diseases in the US.
“At HHS, we are dedicated to restoring our agencies to their tradition of upholding gold-standard, evidence-based science. As we begin to Make America Healthy Again, it’s important to prioritize research that directly affects the health of Americans,” HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in an email. “We will leave no stone unturned in identifying the root causes of the chronic disease epidemic as part of our mission to Make America Healthy Again.”
Many of the NIH grant pauses and terminations have been tied to the Trump administration’s orders for research and institutions to comply with its rules around diversity, equity and inclusion in order to receive federal funding. Just hours into his second term, Trump signed an anti-DEI mandate declaring diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and language to be discriminatory.
Concerns around staffing, data
The new Senate committee minority report also raises concerns about access to scientific data and reductions in HHS staffing.
An analysis in the report finds that, since January 20, at least 175 public health datasets from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website and 135 datasets from a central HHS data portal have been deleted.
In February, the organization Doctors for America filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, seeking a temporary restraining order to restore websites and datasets. A judge granted the motion for a temporary restraining order, but Trump officials have added a disclaimer to the websites, “falsely suggesting the datasets are inaccurate,” according to the new report.
The report also notes that, based on public reports, “at least 10,000 employees at HHS agencies have been terminated and an additional 10,000 have retired, quit, or been forced out by the administration.”
When plans for the restructuring of HHS were announced in late March, Kennedy described them as an effort to allow the department to do more at a lower cost to taxpayers.
“We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” he said at the time. “This overhaul will be a win-win for taxpayers and for those that HHS serves.”
Trump administration officials have not provided the Senate HELP Minority Staff with “any details in writing about the mass firings” at the agencies, according to the new report.
