White House Proposes $5 Billion Cut to NIH Budget, Reducing Institutes from 27 to 22

The Trump administration's fiscal year 2027 budget proposal, released on April 3, 2026, requests $41 billion for the National Institutes of Health, representing a $5 billion cut from current funding levels. The plan would consolidate NIH from 27 institutes and centers down to 22 by eliminating the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, the Fogarty International Center, and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, while merging drug and alcohol abuse research institutes into a new National Institute of Substance Use and Addiction Research and relocating the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to the CDC. The proposal also slashes Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health funding from $1.5 billion to $945 million. Despite these sweeping changes, the budget is expected to face strong bipartisan opposition in Congress and is unlikely to be approved as proposed.

Proposed $5 Billion Budget Cut and Restructuring of NIH

• ▪The White House is asking Congress to cut $5 billion from the National Institutes of Health
• ▪The president's fiscal year 2027 budget request was released on Friday, April 3, 2026
• ▪The president's fiscal year 2027 budget request asks for $41 billion for the National Institutes of Health
• ▪The White House proposal asks Congress to slash the budget for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health from its current $1.5 billion to $945 million

Elimination and Consolidation of Specific Institutes and Centers

• ▪The president's fiscal year 2027 budget request eliminates the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
• ▪The 2027 budget 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
• ▪The president's fiscal year 2027 budget request eliminates the Fogarty International Center
• ▪The 2027 budget proposes relocating the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Expected Congressional Response and Political Reception

• ▪Congress is unlikely to go along with the Trump budget proposal to cut $5 billion from the National Institutes of Health
• ▪The White House plan to cut $5 billion from the National Institutes of Health and downsize its institutes is expected to receive a chilly reception from lawmakers from both parties

Perspective of White House/Trump administration

• ▪The Trump administration's 2027 budget proposal aims to consolidate National Institutes of Health institutes and centers to improve organizational efficiency
• ▪The White House budget proposal seeks to reduce Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health funding as part of broader National Institutes of Health restructuring efforts

Perspective of Congressional lawmakers (bipartisan)

• ▪Lawmakers from both parties view the proposed $5 billion cut to the National Institutes of Health as politically unacceptable

Perspective of Institutes and centers targeted for elimination or consolidation

• ▪The Fogarty International Center's mission would end if the Trump administration's budget proposal eliminating the center is approved
• ▪The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health faces complete elimination under the Trump administration's 2027 budget proposal
• ▪The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities would lose its independent status under the proposed budget eliminations