Trump budget blueprint cuts funding to NIH

President Trump’s proposed federal budget cuts nearly $6 billion from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) despite his promises on the campaign trail that a Trump administration would work to cure diseases.

The Trump plan, which cuts the NIH budget by $5.8 billion, proposes a “major reorganization” of the institutes and centers at NIH to “help focus resources on the highest priority research and training activities.”

The document includes eliminating the Fogarty International Center. The center spends $69 million a year to encourage health research institutes in different countries and the U.S. to work together. It also proposes “consolidating the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality within NIH” in addition to “other consolidations and structural changes across NIH organizations and activities.”

{mosads}Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), one of the president’s allies, has in the past called it “irresponsible and shortsighted, not prudent, to let financing for basic research dwindle,” Stat News reported.

The president’s proposed budget blueprint dramatically reduces the size of government.

It calls for deep cuts at departments and agencies that would eliminate entire programs and slash the size of the federal workforce. It also proposes a $54 billion increase in defense spending, which the White House says will be offset by other cuts.

Trump demands in the proposal a 28 percent reduction in the State Department’s budget. The departments of Commerce, Agriculture, Energy, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development would also see major cuts, as would the Environmental Protection Agency.