Trump Administration Is Expected to Propose 18% Cut in NIH Budget

The National Institutes of Health would see its budget slashed by 18 percent, from $31.8 billion to $26 billion, under a spending plan for the 2018 fiscal year that the Trump administration is expected to release on Tuesday. Details of the budget were under wraps, but The Washington Post noticed on Monday that the spending plan for the Department of Health and Human Services, of which the NIH is a part, had been posted online early. (The document was later taken down.)

The NIH, the largest source of funds for research at colleges and universities, was slated to be cut by a similar amount in the “skinny” budget that President Trump released in March. The spending plan to be released on Tuesday is intended to provide details missing from the March proposals.

But in a spending deal reached this month for the rest of the 2017 fiscal year, Congress approved a $2-billion increase in the NIH’s budget, which has historically benefited from bipartisan support.

So whatever cuts the Trump administration may propose for the NIH, the final budget may end up looking quite different. The 2018 fiscal year begins on October 1.