Cancer groups have begun responding to the Trump administration’s proposed $15.8 billion cut to HHS included in the fiscal year 2027 budget. The proposal includes a $5 billion funding cut to the National Institutes of Health — of which the National Cancer Institute is a part — amounting to a nearly 13% loss.
In 2025, the administration proposed cutting NIH funding by $18 billion, but the request was ultimately rejected by Congress.
The 2027 budget proposal revives the administration’s efforts to cap indirect research costs at the NIH at 15%, efforts previously blocked by a federal judge in 2025.
The NIH has had a tumultuous start to the year, with director Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, simultaneously serving as acting CDC director since February. More than half of the agency’s 27 institutes and centers have been operating without permanent directors as of mid-February amid a wave of terminations, resignations and retirements.
In response to the most recent budget proposal, the American Association for Cancer Research has called on Congress to again protect research funding.
“The cancer research community was tremendously grateful to the leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, and to every member who stood up for patients and for science, for their support of NIH in FY2026,” the AACR said in an April 3 news release. “This year, AACR urges appropriators in both chambers to once again support a robust funding increase for NIH. […] The history of progress against cancer is a bipartisan achievement. So is the responsibility to protect it.”
An April 3 statement from the Association of American Cancer Institutes — which represents more than 100 cancer centers in the U.S. and Canada — similarly expressed disappointment in the administration’s 2027 budget proposal.
“Further cuts to NIH funding would hinder the agency’s effectiveness and contradict the stated goals of its leadership,” the AACI said. “We urge Congress to continue its longstanding bipartisan support of biomedical research and reject the FY 27 budget proposal.”
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