Draft budget plan proposes deep cuts across federal health programs

By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal officials are circulating a draft budget proposal that would make dramatic additional cuts to federal health programs and serve as a roadmap for more mass firings.

Though it’s preliminary, the document gives an indication of the Trump administration’s priorities as it prepares its 2026 fiscal year budget proposal to Congress. The document indicates plans to deepen job and funding reductions across much of the federal government.

The budget of the Food and Drug Administration would be cut by nearly half a billion dollars, to $6.5 billion, in part by eliminating some longtime agency responsibilities and shifting them to states.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s core budget would be slashed from more than $9 billion to about $5 billion, with a number of programs eliminated and some transferred into a proposed new agency to be called the Administration for a Healthy America.

The proposal was first reported by The Washington Post. The Associated Press saw a copy of the 64-page document, dated April 10, which has been circulating among some health officials.

A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesman did not immediately respond to an AP request for comment Thursday.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.