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A scientist at the National Cancer Institute shows a patient the difference between CT scans showing cancerous tumors and a clean scan after treatment.<\/span>SAUL LOEB\/Getty<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n On Friday,<\/span> the Trump administration released a detailed look<\/a> at its proposed 2026 budget, including major cuts to federal science agencies that oversee research on everything from cancer to the cosmos.<\/p>\n While the broad strokes<\/a> of Trump\u2019s budget had been released in early May, the new proposal reveals more about what specific programs the president would like to see cut\u2014and its impact on American science.<\/p>\n That includes a more than $30 billion cut<\/a> to the Department of Health and Human Services, which houses the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)\u2014agencies tasked with <\/strong>critical work like overseeing food safety, controlling disease outbreaks (see: measles<\/a>), and supporting vaccine research. The Department of Education, as the New York Times<\/em> tallied, would have its budget cut by about $12 billion<\/a>\u2014a blow to funding mechanisms like Pell grants that help promising future scientists afford college. And NASA\u2019s budget, as Space.com <\/em>reported<\/a>, would shrink by $6 billion, a nearly 25 percent cut to the agency that oversees space exploration.<\/p>\n At NIH, which has already come under<\/a> repeated<\/a> scrutiny<\/a> by the administration, the president proposed a budget cut of about $18 billion<\/a>, the Times<\/em> reports\u2014<\/strong>around a 40 percent decrease<\/a> of its current funds. Within NIH, the National Cancer Institute, responsible for supporting research on understanding and treating cancer, would see its funding cut from $7 billion to a little over $4.5 billion.<\/p>\n These cuts, experts say, will be detrimental to the national research landscape\u2014and Americans\u2019 health. As Harvard researchers noted in an op-ed published in JAMA Health Forum<\/em><\/a> this week, more than 99 percent of new drugs approved between 2010 and 2019 had roots in NIH funding. Every dollar of NIH funding, in fact, returns more than 2.5 dollars<\/a> in economic activity, a coalition of academic and industry scientists estimated in a widely cited<\/a> report this year. In all, the Harvard researchers estimate<\/a>, cutting $20 billion to NIH over 25 years may save $500 billion on paper, but it\u2019d end up costing $8.2 trillion in lost human health.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s just NIH. The National Science Foundation, along with NIH, is another major funder of American research. It would <\/strong>see more than half of its funding slashed under Trump\u2019s budget, from nearly $9 billion in 2025 to $3.9 billion<\/a>. This reduction, according to<\/a> the administration, \u201creflects a strategic alignment of resources in a constrained fiscal environment.\u201d As science journalist Dan Garisto pointed out on Bluesky<\/a>, it would mean the number of staff, students, and researchers involved in NSF-supported science would drop from more than 330,000 to about 90,000\u2014a whopping 73 percent cut.<\/p>\n And at NASA, Trump\u2019s proposed budget would mean \u201cthe biggest single-year cut to NASA in history,\u201d Space.com<\/em> reports<\/a>, and the cancellation of several programs, including a project to collect material from Mars and explore the depths of the solar system, projects that would reportedly<\/a> take billions to replace. In a statement Friday, the Planetary Society, a non-profit organization advocating for space exploration and research, called<\/a> the president\u2019s proposed cuts, if passed by Congress, an \u201cextinction-level event\u201d for science. \u201cIt will damage the agency\u2019s highly skilled workforce, abandon national priorities, and gut STEM education and outreach.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n