Death By A Thousand Budget Cuts

From cancer screening to outbreak response, programs saving millions of lives are being eliminated, and your community will pay the price

My dad spent over a decade battling COPD before being diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2017. Through different rounds of immunotherapy, as his body struggled to respond to treatment, he held onto hope in the most touching way. In one of our conversations, he looked at me with such pride and said he was convinced that someday in my lifetime, I'd find "the cure."

He thought the world of me and didn't quite understand that I wasn't that kind of scientist, but I treasured his faith in both me and in science itself. Like so many families facing devastating diagnoses, we believed a breakthrough was just around the corner. We knew NIH and cancer centers around the country were working hard to find new cures, while prevention programs helped ensure other families wouldn’t suffer from the disease.

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This year, our government started systematically dismantling the research pipeline that creates breakthroughs for people who need them. Cuts to essential health programs began in early 2025 with the establishment of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), continued with the proposed 2026 National Budget, and culminated with yesterday's Senate passage of a massive spending bill. Through DOGE, the 2026 budget, and yesterday’s Big [Not So] Beautiful Bill, clinical trials, cancer centers, and researchers working on new cures are losing the majority of their government funding.

While others have written about cuts to lifesaving programs like suicide prevention hotlines, lead poison screening, tobacco cessation programs, and national debt implications, few point out the danger to the scientific discoveries that so many of us count on.

Let's be clear about the short- and long-term health implications of the proposed 2026 national budget, should it pass as written. This isn't about politics, it's about every family holding onto hope for a breakthrough, every patient believing science will find a way. Public health has always been a bipartisan priority because disease doesn't choose sides. These programs protect all Americans, and their elimination will harm communities everywhere. Let’s discuss…

Programs That Would Disappear

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) faces a $32 billion cut. Most of the programs proposed for elimination are within the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), which is slated to have its budget cut in half. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would also see their budgets cut in half. Let’s discuss some of the CDC and NIH programs that are under threat if the new budget passes.

Source: www.cdcdataproject.org

The CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion had a 2024 budget of more than $1.4 billion, awarding over 75% to state and local partners. This Center is responsible for chronic disease prevention, including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, tobacco control, and other major public health programs. The proposed budget would eliminate this entire center. Here are some of the Center’s successful programs that are currently under threat:

Cancer Programs: Dismantling Decades of Progress

In the United States, 1.7 million people are diagnosed with cancer each year, and 600,000 people die from it. Cancer care costs $185 billion annually.

The proposed budget would eliminate the CDC's entire Division of Cancer Prevention and Control -- the federal program responsible for cancer prevention, early detection, and survivor support across all 50 states. National cancer organizations warn that terminating these programs will undermine the nation’s ability to fight cancer and improve public health.

Examples of what we will lose if the budget passes:

• The National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, which has provided more than 16 million screening tests since 1991, finding nearly 80,000 breast cancers and over 5,000 cervical cancers.

• The National Program of Cancer Registries, which coordinates data collection on nearly all cancer cases in the United States, data used to catch concerning trends like early-onset colorectal cancer.

• The Colorectal Cancer Control Program, which promotes screening for colorectal cancer, and has contributed to huge declines in number of cases and mortality rates.

• The National Comprehensive Cancer Control Program, which supports all 50 states in building partnerships and coordinating efforts to reduce cancer rates and support cancer survivors in all communities.

Tobacco Control: A Success Story Being Terminated

CDC's Tips From Former Smokers campaign contributed to 16.4 million quit attempts and more than 1 million sustained quits during 2012-2018, and helped save around $7.3 billion in smoking-related healthcare costs. This prevented an estimated 129,000 early deaths during that time period.

CDC is the only federal agency providing funding to help all 50 states with tobacco control efforts. That support is being eliminated. Funding tobacco prevention is ultimately a money-saver. California, for example, saves over $155 in health care costs for every $1 invested in these programs. Washington saves $5 in tobacco-related hospitalizations for each $1 spent.

Diabetes Prevention: Cutting Prevention While Disease Skyrockets

People with prediabetes who take part in CDC's lifestyle change program can cut their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 58% (71% for people over 60). About 98 million adults have prediabetes—that's 1 in 3 people, with 81% unaware they have it.

The National Diabetes Prevention Program created a nationwide network. Organizations from 46 states offer classes to tens of thousands of adults. All of this infrastructure—built over more than a decade—faces elimination.

Global Health: Weakening Our Front Line Against Outbreaks

The budget would also eliminate CDC's Global Health Center, which leads efforts to fight HIV and tuberculosis and conduct disease surveillance worldwide. Consider what this means when the next novel virus emerges anywhere in the world. The early warning systems that detect pandemics? Defunded. The international partnerships that contain diseases before they reach the U.S.? Severed. The physicians and researchers that diagnose and treat new diseases before they spread? Eliminated.

The Injury Prevention Work No One Sees

The injury prevention division lost all but 12 of its 130-member staff. Drowning deaths are on the rise in the U.S., with around 4,500 fatal drownings occurring yearly. The entire drowning prevention team was eliminated.

Cardiovascular Catastrophe: Defunding a Lifesaving Initiative

The Million Hearts® initiative, whose lofty goal includes the prevention of a million heart attacks and strokes within 5 years, is at risk of being cut under the new budget proposal. It prevented an estimated 135,000 heart attacks and strokes from 2012 to 2016, averting $5.6 billion in medical costs.

These math calculations aren't projections—these are proven returns on investment. When we cut these programs, those heart attacks start happening again. Those preventable diabetes cases become lifelong medical costs. Those smoking-related cancers return. Lost grants hurt states and local communities, as can be seen on this map that shows $ loss per capita.

Source: www.cdcdataproject.org

The United States' innovation ecosystem has been a huge success, partly thanks to the robust support it receives from the government. The proposed budget includes a 57% cut to the funding of the National Science Foundation, which would reduce supported researchers from over 330,000 to just 90,000. This would impact scientific research that is vital to the nation’s economy, national security, and the preparation of the next generation of STEM talent. This would then affect the ability of the U.S. to maintain its position as a global leader in science and technology.

The Kids Are Not Alright

The American Academy of Pediatrics condemned the proposed budget reconciliation bill for its severe cuts to programs such as Medicaid and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) that millions of children rely on for health care and nutrition. Pediatricians warn the bill would have devastating consequences for all children and families, even those with private health insurance.

Is anyone alright? No one will get through this unscathed. These cuts will impact the entire healthcare system. Dozens of healthcare organizations are issuing statements warning about widespread harm to patients if the bill passes. The American Medical Association wrote to Congress with concerns around patient access to care and the viability of physician practices, especially in rural areas. The American Hospital Association warns that the cuts would harm access to care and impact the ability of hospitals to properly serve their communities. The American Civil Liberties Union condemns the bill as “an attack on our health care, our civil liberties, and our very ability to survive.”

Real Communities, Real Consequences

The CDC Data Project lets you see exactly what your state loses—the tobacco prevention program that helped drive down smoking rates in your community, the diabetes educator serving rural areas, the community health workers providing care in underserved neighborhoods.

Visit the dashboard. Click on your state. Watch proven, life-saving programs disappear.

What You Can Do

This isn't about abstract policy debates. It's about whether your community will have resources to prevent the next outbreak, help your neighbor manage diabetes, or catch cancer early.

Immediate Actions:

1. Explore the data: Visit cdcdataproject.org to see specific impacts in your state.

2. Contact your representatives: Make it personal: "The diabetes prevention program that helped my neighbor avoid type 2 diabetes is being eliminated. The cancer screening program that has found nearly 78,000 breast cancers since 1991 is losing all funding. This affects my family's safety."

3. Support organizations fighting these cuts: From major cancer advocacy groups to the American Physical Society.

The Choice Before Us

We can invest $1 in tobacco prevention and save $155 in healthcare costs, or eliminate prevention and pay the full cost of lung cancer treatment.

We can fund diabetes prevention programs that cut disease risk by 58%, or pay for a lifetime of diabetes management.

We can maintain cancer screening programs that have found 78,000 breast cancers since 1991, or let those cancers go undetected until they're terminal.

The CDC Data Project shows us exactly what we're choosing to lose. Every program has a success story. Every dollar cut represents lives that could have been saved.

My dad believed science would find a way. As the bill moves toward final passage in the House, we're about to find out if America still believes that, too.

Stay Curious,

Unbiased Science

P.S. Your voice matters now more than ever. You can call your representative in Congress at (202) 224-3121. The research pipeline that could save your family depends on it.

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