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healthcare
'Devastating' Trump Cuts to FDA, NIH Will Result in Fewer Medications, New Analysis Warns
"The United States' effort to bring cutting-edge treatments to patients," said a group of lawmakers, "will come to a grinding halt because of the Trump administration's devastating cuts to NIH and FDA funding."
Jul 18, 2025
One former federal health official said Friday that medications with the potential to "substantially change healthcare and improve the lives of patients" are likely to be among the dozens that won't be developed if Republicans pass a proposal by the Trump administration to slash crucial health research funding.
Jeremy Berg, a former director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the National Institutes of Health, was referring to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) of President Donald Trump's proposal to cut funding to the NIH by 40%—budget cuts that experts have warned would kneecap the country's ability to research emerging health threats and treatments, while terminating the United States' position as a world leader in medical innovation.
"The lost drugs" resulting from the budget cuts, Berg told The New York Times, "are more likely to be the novel 'first in class' drugs."
The CBO found that even a 10% reduction in the NIH budget would stop an estimated 30 new medications from coming to market over the next three decades.
A reduction in the agency's external preclinical research "would ultimately decrease the number of new drugs coming to market by roughly 4.5%, or about two drugs per year," the CBO said, with the impact of the budget cuts growing over three decades.
The CBO also analyzed proposals that would affect the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including one that would cut staff and result in increased review times for new medications by nine months. By the second decade of the policy being in effect, said the CBO, 10 fewer drugs would be approved each decade—a 2% reduction—with 23 new medications ultimately being prevented from coming to market.
Already, the FDA's workforce has been reduced by about 15%, with 3,500 people losing their jobs or resigning.
The Times reported that the FDA has approved 25 new drugs so far in 2025; it has authorized an average of 60 new medications per year in the past.
"This unprecedented assault on our healthcare institutions by the Trump administration will cut off access to medicines that patients are waiting for, cede our global leadership in medical innovation to China, and cause wide-ranging harms to our nation's economy."
A group of Democratic lawmakers who serve as ranking members of key committees emphasized that the CBO's analysis likely vastly underestimates the impact Trump's proposed cuts would have on the NIH, as it investigated the potential impact of just a 10% budget cut rather than the full 40% cut the president has proposed.
"The proposed cuts are so enormous that CBO's own model is unable to produce an estimate," said U.S. Reps. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), ranking member of the House Budget Committee, and Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), along with Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).
"The United States leads the world in medical innovation because of our continued investments in research and development at the NIH," said the lawmakers. "Every $1 invested in NIH research returns $2.50 to the U.S. economy. This unprecedented assault on our healthcare institutions by the Trump administration will cut off access to medicines that patients are waiting for, cede our global leadership in medical innovation to China, and cause wide-ranging harms to our nation's economy."
"The United States' effort to bring cutting-edge treatments to patients with cancers, rare diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases," they added, "will come to a grinding halt because of the Trump administration's devastating cuts to NIH and FDA funding."
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The GOP’s Big Budget Bill Will Only Make the Healthcare Affordability Crisis Worse
Most Americans believe the government has a responsibility to provide healthcare and lower its cost. President Trump and Congress have just done the opposite.
Jul 18, 2025
Among the universal truths in our country today is this: Healthcare is too expensive. It’s difficult to find the right doctor for your needs. And even if you have health insurance and can get the care you need, you might come home one day to find a massive medical bill in your mailbox. You’d be hard-pressed to find a summer barbecue in America where someone isn’t sharing a story about their own struggle to afford and navigate our healthcare system.
That’s because our nation’s affordability crisis affects everyone: patients, families, workers, small businesses, large employers, and governments at every level. It’s become a drag on our economy, a strain on public budgets, and a source of instability for millions of American households. People are working harder than ever, paying more than ever, and still going without the care they need. Employers can’t keep up with premium increases. Taxpayers are paying more and getting less. And the federal government is spending more on healthcare than any other nation, with worse outcomes.
The lack of any clear agenda from lawmakers to tackle this crisis is not only a moral failure, but a political one.
The last election centered on affordability—including healthcare costs—and yet the big budget bill U.S. President Donald Trump just signed will make healthcare access and affordability worse. It adds bureaucratic barriers and raises healthcare prices, which will push or price out 17 million Americans from coverage in public and private plans. As a result of this bill, we expect premiums to spike this fall in the individual insurance market, and cost sharing to go up more sharply in the next few years.
We need leaders who say clearly: If you live in America, you should be able to see a doctor, afford your medication, and get care when you need it without going bankrupt.
This is not the kind of change people want. Poll after poll shows overwhelming public support for expanding access to care and lowering healthcare costs. Further, polling shows that most Americans believe the government has a responsibility to provide healthcare and lower its cost. President Trump and Congress have just done the opposite.
Republican leaders forced through deep cuts to people’s benefits in the name of cutting “waste, fraud, and abuse.” But these cuts are unrelated to waste, fraud, or abuse, and if they were the big budget bill would have looked dramatically different. Rather than passing policies that push people off health plans, lawmakers could have delivered for the American people by reining in the true drivers of unaffordable healthcare.
Consumer advocates and other health leaders have worked with legislators of both parties to develop proposals that could start to address these issues. Among the bipartisan solutions ready to go is stopping Medicare Advantage plans from making people appear sicker on paper so they can get more money from the federal government. Other proposals focus on policies to make sure that big corporate hospitals can’t price gouge their patients, charging hundreds and sometimes thousands more for the same procedure that can be done at the doctor’s office down the road. And proposals to guarantee that every patient knows the price and quality of health services before they get care so they can decide the most affordable place to get their MRI or a knee replacement.
Republicans have the power and responsibility to address this affordability crisis given that they control Congress and the White House. Democrats, too, face a moment of truth. With an eye toward midterm elections, the public is looking for leaders who will not just protect the status quo but challenge the entrenched interests that make healthcare unaffordable in the first place. This means taking on the rising cost of care driven by giant hospital and drug corporations, and insurance industry practices that prioritize profits at the expense of the health and financial security of the American people.
We need leaders who say clearly: If you live in America, you should be able to see a doctor, afford your medication, and get care when you need it without going bankrupt.
For the better part of the last decade, consumer advocates have been exploring solutions to bring greater affordability while also improving the quality of our healthcare. Working with other partners from across the health sector, including employers and labor, Families USA this year released our own affordability agenda, rooted in bold leadership and commonsense policy, that reflects the basic truth that affordable, high quality healthcare is foundational to our economy, our families, and our democracy.
This isn’t about being anti-profit. It’s about designing a system where the healthcare industry profits when it drives innovation, improves the quality of care and health outcomes, and leaves no one behind. These bipartisan solutions put us on that path right now.
What happens next—as we deal with the fallout from the Republican-led attack on Medicaid and our healthcare system, and how Democrats choose to respond—is a litmus test. Will we continue to let healthcare industry insiders and partisan politics dictate the future of healthcare? Or will we rise to meet the needs of the people by challenging the status quo with courage, clarity, and compassion to demand an affordable healthcare system for all of us? The moment for politics-as-usual has passed. Now is the time to stand up for the American people and the kind of future we want to build.
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Bill Would Subject Lawmakers to Same Work Reporting Mandates GOP Just Imposed on Medicaid, SNAP Recipients
"If congressional Republicans think these burdens are appropriate for struggling families, then members of Congress should shoulder them too," said BURDEN Act sponsor Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi.
Jul 17, 2025
In response to Republicans' new law giving tax breaks to the rich while gutting the social safety net, U.S. Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi on Thursday introduced legislation that would force members of Congress "to personally comply with the same burdensome work requirement paperwork they imposed on low-income Americans."
Under the Illinois Democrat's Bringing Unfair Reporting Duties to Electeds Now (BURDEN) Act, federal lawmakers "would be barred from enrolling in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program unless they submit monthly proof of 'community engagement,' the same bureaucratic reporting required of Medicaid recipients," his office said.
Krishnamoorthi's two-page bill would also force members of Congress to file the same paperwork as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients to verify eligibility, employment, and income. The proposal comes less than two weeks after President Donald Trump signed congressional Republicans' budget reconciliation package.
During the debate over the GOP megabill, Matt Bruenig, founder of the People's Policy Project, argued in The New York Times that "refusing medical care to people in their time of need based on how much they happened to work the month before is a cruel and pointless policy."
The so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act is expected to leave 17 million Americans without health insurance, and, according to an Urban Institute analysis, an estimated 22.3 million families are projected to lose some or all of their SNAP benefits.
"President Trump's reckless 'Large Lousy Law' forces millions of vulnerable Americans to jump through hoops just to keep food on the table or get the medical care they need," Krishnamoorthi said in a statement. "If congressional Republicans think these burdens are appropriate for struggling families, then members of Congress should shoulder them too. The BURDEN Act simply says, if you want taxpayer-funded health coverage, prove you meet the same standards you're imposing on the American people."
Krishnamoorthi's bill is unlikely to go anywhere in either the House of Representatives or the Senate, both controlled by the GOP, but it sends a message to the public. His office said that "by exposing the double standard in how burdensome requirements are applied, the BURDEN Act seeks to restore basic fairness and highlight the real-world consequences of Republican policies that target working families."
He introduced the bill amid intense debates among Democratic politicians and their supporters about how to battle Trump and the GOP's agenda and prepare for the 2026 midterm elections, following devastating losses for Democrats in the last cycle.
On Wednesday, the Congressional Progressive Caucus—of which Krishnamoorthi is not a member—announced four task forces as part of an effort to "reclaim the House majority in 2026—with a sharp, populist, pro-working-class agenda that meets the moment."
Similarly but separately, a coalition of labor groups and other progressive organizations on Wednesday launched the Battleground Alliance PAC, a political action committee that plans to pour at least $50 million into flipping the lower chamber for Democrats.
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