Trump Proposes To Cut NIH Funding By 19 Percent

The NIH would absorb $5.8 billion cut under President Trump’s first budget proposal. This is about 19 percent of its current $30.3 billion budget.

The agency funds research into a broad array of diseases and conditions, including HIV, cancer, developmental disorders, heart disease, and mental illness.

As Washington Post notes, the NIH passes out more than 80 percent of its money to more than 300,000 researchers at universities across the country and overseas. It also has hundreds of researchers conducting studies in labs at its sprawling campus in Bethesda, Md. Its world-renowned clinical centre treats patients from around the world seeking last-chance cures and volunteers testing cutting-edge therapies.

Trump’s plan would reverse that trend in dramatic fashion, according to the government’s plan. The document assures “other consolidations and structural changes across NIH organisations and activities” beyond the cuts it specifies.