A new report released by Senator Bernie Sanders has ignited alarm across the medical and scientific communities, revealing that the Trump administration cut more than half a billion dollars from federal research into some of the deadliest diseases facing Americans. According to the findings, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) eliminated or froze $561 million in funding for research on cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, and diabetes — despite Congress having already approved full funding for these studies.
The report, published Friday by Sanders, the ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, describes a sweeping rollback that terminated at least 320 research grants mid-study and disrupted 304 active clinical trials, including 69 trials involving children. Researchers say the decision abandoned thousands of patients who were relying on experimental treatments and shattered years, sometimes decades, of scientific progress.
“This was not about science,” the report states bluntly. “The criteria for these decisions were political.”
One of the most troubling findings is how the NIH allegedly decided which projects to cut. Interviews with NIH staff revealed that research proposals were flagged for additional scrutiny if they included certain “banned” words. These included terms such as COVID, climate change, diversity, disadvantaged backgrounds, and multiple references to Black men and women. Scientists say this approach undermined peer review standards and replaced evidence-based decision-making with ideological screening.
The largest losses came from cancer research. The NIH terminated or froze 116 cancer-related grants totaling $273 million, including $20 million allocated to the Duke Specialized Program of Research Excellence in Brain Cancer in North Carolina. That program focused on pediatric brain tumors — the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among children under 15. Researchers involved in the program said the cuts halted promising work that could have improved survival rates and treatment outcomes.
Alzheimer’s research suffered another devastating blow. The report shows that 65 Alzheimer’s-related grants worth $94 million were terminated or frozen, disrupting long-term studies that had finally begun producing potential drug therapies and early diagnostic tools. Additionally, the NIH halted funding for 14 of the 35 Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers, cutting approximately $65 million and forcing some centers to lay off staff or suspend operations entirely.
The damage extended beyond individual grants. The NIH canceled meetings of the National Advisory Council on Aging, delaying the release of an estimated $600 million in additional research funding. After years of bipartisan investment in Alzheimer’s research, the Trump administration reduced the number of new Alzheimer’s projects by nearly one-third in a single year, according to the report.
Heart disease and diabetes — two of the most common and costly chronic illnesses in the United States — were also heavily affected. The NIH cut $111 million from heart disease research and $83 million from diabetes studies. This occurred even as the administration publicly promoted health initiatives and rhetoric focused on improving American well-being.
Senator Sanders criticized the contradiction sharply, pointing to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s public campaign to “Make Americans Healthy Again.” “You cannot claim to prioritize public health while gutting the very research that saves lives,” Sanders said. “These cuts will cost lives, plain and simple.”
Beyond the immediate impact on patients, the report warns of long-term consequences for the nation’s scientific workforce. The abrupt termination of grants has left young researchers questioning whether it is viable to build a career in American science. Graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early-career scientists reported abandoning projects, losing funding, or considering moving abroad to continue their work.
Medical associations and advocacy groups echoed those concerns, warning that the United States risks losing its position as a global leader in biomedical research. “This is not just a funding issue,” one researcher said. “It’s a trust issue. Science requires stability.”
Sanders argues that the cuts reflect a broader pattern of politicizing federal institutions that are meant to operate independently. He is calling for congressional oversight hearings and legislative safeguards to prevent future administrations from overriding scientific priorities for ideological reasons.
“This report shows what happens when politics replaces evidence,” Sanders said. “Medical research should be guided by science, compassion, and the needs of patients — not by banned words or political agendas.”
As patients, families, and researchers absorb the findings, the report raises a stark question: how many breakthroughs were delayed, how many lives were affected, and how much progress was lost? The answers may not be fully known for years — but the consequences, Sanders warns, are already being felt across the country.
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