AV on Health: The Importance of Public Health Services

A recently obtained memo by the Washington Post shows plans for deep cuts to the budget for the Department of Health and Human Services as the Trump administration prepares its 2026 fiscal year budget request to Congress. The memo calls for reshaping federal health agencies that oversee food and drug safety, manage the nation's response to infectious disease threats and drive biomedical research. According to the memo, public health programs that prevent childhood lead poisoning, work on heart disease, obesity, diabetes and smoking cessation would all be eliminated. In addition, rural healthcare would be hard hit with the elimination of funding for hospital flexibility grants, state offices of rural health, the rural residency development program and at-risk rural hospitals program grants.