USA: Planned budget for CDC in 2026 discontinues funding for the CFS program among other things

https://skywriter.blue/pages/did:plc:fxzd5277so73zk3uxvlpzrg6/post/3lmzhncnyzs2m
From Jaime Seltzer:

Some bad news for people living with #MECFS. Under the 2026 "passback", the "reorganization" of HHS and CDC would cut all ME/CFS funding from CDC. I think this is a 'scoop', since I'm unaware of anyone having reported on it, yet. Let's talk about what a passback is, and what it means for us.

National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases
The Budget discontinues funding for the Lyme Disease, Prion Disease, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and the Harmful Algal Bloom programs to prioritize funding for core infectious disease and surveillance activities. The Budget also includes $25 million for the wastewater surveillance program within the Emerging Infectious Diseases PPA.

The HHS budget draft (the "passback") is sent to Congress. It "shows how the Trump administration plans to reshape the... agencies that oversee food and drug safety, manage the nation’s response to infectious-disease threats & drive biomedical research," according to the Washington Post.

Agencies have been told that they are allowed to appeal to HHS for changes, but cannot change the bottom line... Congress usually ignores the budget request, but...

"Trump and his allies in Congress have made clear they want to smash the status quo by drastically reducing the size of the federal government and scrubbing it of programs and research efforts seen as wasteful or contrary to administration priorities." says WaPo.

"The proposal would cut the CDC’s budget by about 44 percent, from $9.2 billion to about $5.2 billion, and would eliminate all of the agency’s chronic disease programs"-- that's us, folks!

It's not just #MECFS on the chopping block. The quote that started this all off talked about eliminating wastewater surveillance. Funding for Head Start, HIV, grants to support rural hospitals, lead poison monitoring, and the National Institute for Nursing Research (NINR) would be eliminated.

And of course the National Institute for Minority Health-- can't have people collecting data on health disparities, after all!

We do have the power to do something about this! Congress has to approve the cuts. And despite the atmosphere of capitulation, Congress already rejected the Trump administration planning to cut 20% of the NIH budget.

Call your Congressional reps and tell them that you do NOT approve of these cuts. Pick your grounds based on personal experience (relying on Head Start programs, importance of AIDS/HIV research, ME/CFS funding, wastewater monitoring)-- and tell Congress you're pro-science, not pro-disease.

www.congress.gov WaPo's article on the budget cuts, full text (but you'd have to search the budget draft itself to find the info in the first share): archive.is

 

"Leaked Budget Document Confirms Axed CDC Offices — Two key CDC journals also on the chopping block"
https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/features/115174
(may require free registration)

 

Urgent Appeal to Preserve & Strengthen the CDC’s ME/CFS Program
https://solvecfs.quorum.us/campaign/120562/