The Trump administration is limiting the scope of scientific input into the USDA’s 2020 dietary guidelines

The Trump administration’s FY2020 budget proposes to cut funding for HHS by 11.9% (compared to FY2019 levels). Funding for the National Institutes of Health, within HHS, would decline by 12.6% (compared to FY 2019 levels).

The CDC’s Climate and Health Program office was merged with its National Asthma Control Program office. Prior to the merger, the CDC issued a dismissal notice to the head of the Climate and Health Program, Dr. George Luber, but later withdrew it after he threatened to bring legal proceedings. The CDC subsequently reassigned Dr. Luber to its waterborne diseases unit.

HHS announced that it would use funds originally allocated to research and other programs to cover the costs of its Unaccompanied Alien Children program. A total of $266 million will be re-diverted, including $87.3 million originally allocated to the National Institutes of Health for cancer and other research.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, removed an online medical guidelines database. The database, known as the National Guideline Clearinghouse, was thought to be the world’s most comprehensive online repository of medical guidelines.

White House and EPA officials sought to block publication of HHS study on the health effects of water contamination due to concerns that it would be a “public relations nightmare.”

The Trump administration’s FY2019 budget proposes to maintain funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at FY2017 levels, despite imposing additional responsibilities on the NIH, including establishing three new sub-institutes to take over functions currently performed by other HHS offices.

Policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control were given a list of 7 words, including “evidence-based” and “science-based,” which should not be used in documents prepared for next year’s budget.

The food advisory committee, the only body dedicated to advising the Food and Drug Administration on food-related science policy, was disbanded.

HHS suspended the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices which lists addiction and mental health programs that have been independently assessed and deemed scientifically sound.

Employees at the Centers for Disease Control were instructed not to speak with any member of the news media, regardless of the nature of their inquiry, without the approval of the communications office.

References to “climate change” and links to climate-related documents, including an educational fact sheet on climate change and human health, were removed from the National Environmental Health Sciences website.

HHS cancelled $213.6 million in funding for teen pregnancy prevention programs and research. The cancellation will affect five-year grants awarded to 80 institutions by the Obama administration.

The Trump administration’s FY2018 budget proposed a 23% cut in funding the National Hansen’s Disease Program. The program, which is operated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration, conducts research on leprosy.

The Trump administration’s FY2018 budget proposed a 25% cut in funding for research programs at NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

CDC preemptively cancelled a planned summit on climate change and public health due to concerns about the Trump administration’s reaction.

The Trump transition team instructed HHS staff not to send out press releases, post on social media or blogs, or update websites and to consult with senior officials before speaking to the media.

Between June and December 2017, various content was removed from the website of HHS’s Office of Women’s Health, including pages discussing breast cancer and lesbian and bisexual health.

In late 2016, following the presidential election, several references to “climate change” were removed from the website of the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.