Senate advances HHS funding bill that rejects Trump’s proposed cuts

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to advance the 2026 Labor-HHS-Education funding bill to the full Senate.

Why it’s important: The bill rejects the White House’s proposals to significantly cut funding for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), reorganize the department, and eliminate several agencies.

The details:

• HHS: The bill provides an additional $446 million in funding for HHS compared with the current fiscal year (total HHS discretionary funding = $116.6 billion).
• National Institutes of Health (NIH): Most of the increase, $400 million, goes to NIH, rejecting President Trump’s proposed 40% cut to the agency. The bill retains all 27 NIH institutes and centers, rejecting the White House’s proposal to eliminate several institutes and consolidate the remaining into just 8 (including combining the National Institutes on Drug Abuse, Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and Mental Health). It also rejects the administration’s plan to cap NIH funding for indirect costs and blocks NIH from shifting to more upfront grant funding unless it guarantees no cuts to existing awards.
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA): The bill maintains SAMHSA funding at $7.4 billion, rather than eliminating the agency. It maintains or increases funding for programs the White House proposed to cut (e.g., Programs of Regional and National Significance, STOP Act underage drinking prevention funding, substance use block grant, State Opioid Response grants).
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): It also maintains CDC funding at $9.2 billion, rejecting the administration’s push to cut the agency’s budget in half. It would maintain funding for the Office on Smoking and Health and the Opioid Overdose Prevention and Surveillance program at 2025 levels.
• Administration for a Healthy America (AHA): It ignores Secretary Kennedy’s planned HHS reorganization, which would fold multiple agencies, including SAMHSA, into the new AHA.

The response:

• Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the panel, noted the bill rejects proposed cuts that would have devastated the workforce fighting substance use disorders, HIV, and pandemics.
• A spokesperson for Committee Chair Susan Collins said that to create AHA, HHS would have had to submit a formal reorganization plan to Congress and allow 6 months of consideration, which it did not do. The Senate HELP Committee also did not authorize any changes to the department, and it also would have needed to receive a reorganization plan from HHS.

What’s coming:

• The bill now heads to the full Senate.
• The House has not yet started consideration of its funding bill for HHS, though it seems House Republican appropriators are similarly planning to disregard many of the White House’s proposed cuts. The House process will not start until September.
• Eventually, the chambers will have to reconcile their respective bills, and it remains to be seen where the final bill lands.
• While it might be possible for HHS to stand up AHA without Congressional approval, asking lawmakers to authorize it in a budget bill is the most straightforward approach.

Read more: Senate appropriators consider HHS funding bill; Senate Committee endorses NIH budget increase, rebuking Trump administration’s proposed 40% cut; Senate appropriators buck Trump on HHS funding