Late last week, the White House released its FY26 Budget in Brief, which proposes substantial cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Under the proposal, NIH funding would be reduced from $46 billion to $28 billion, a roughly $18 billion cut. NCI would receive a $2.7 billion reduction from it FY25 funding level of $7.224 billion. The budget request also proposes to consolidate the 19 Institutes and Centers into eight. However, NCI would remain structurally intact. Lastly, the CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP), which houses the agency's cancer programs, would be eliminated outright.

Earlier this year, ASTRO signed onto a statement opposing cuts to NIH, the CDC and other federal health agencies. The statement described the several negative impacts of steep funding cuts like reduced economic activity, job losses and America losing it competitive edge in biomedical research. Other potential impacts include terminated clinical trials, closed medical labs and reduced access to life-saving cancer treatments.