Trump's budget hawk is still trying to slash medical research. Congress is saying no.

Source: Politico

04/11/2026 12:00 PM EDT


White House budget director Russ Vought isn’t done trying to cut the National Institutes of Health’s funding, but Congress isn’t taking him seriously anymore.

Vought released a proposal last week to slash the 2027 budget for the world’s largest funder of health research by 10 percent, down from 40 percent last year. It’s unlikely Congress or the agency’s head will listen to him.

Lawmakers rejected Vought’s first big cut in the spending bill they passed in February and already promised to reject the smaller one this year. While Vought has succeeded in trimming spending at some other agencies, the NIH has proven a hard target because lawmakers have a symbiotic relationship with the agency. Most of the money they dole out is returned to their states for disease research, clinical trials and other medical advances — plus photo-ops with researchers boasting about their breakthroughs are a win with voters.

The health research agency’s director, Jay Bhattacharya, is expected to defend the budget to Congress, but it’s unclear whether he stands behind cuts to his agency any more than Congress does. While other agencies, like the State Department, defied Congress and implemented Vought’s cost-cutting vision by not spending their budgets last year, Bhattacharya spent every dollar Congress gave him.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/11/trumps-budget-hawk-is-still-trying-to-slash-medical-research-congress-is-saying-no-00866582