Health

Newsweek - Wait times for emergency hospitalizations continue to rise, with 1 in 20 Americans having to spend more than 24 hours in the emergency department before receiving a bed. 

Roll Call - The National Institutes of Health will be able to fund fewer research grants in fiscal 2026, even if Congress provides increased funding for the agency, due to Trump administration budget maneuvers. The administration’s moves to front-load new grants, while possibly clawing back unspent funds and limiting facility and administration costs, all could suppress the NIH’s opportunities to fund research, according to members of Congress and supporters of the nation’s health research efforts.

These budget maneuvers come in addition to the harsh eye the second Trump administration has cast on the health research agency in its first year, including a proposed 40 percent budget cut for fiscal 2026, which Congress appears unwilling to abide.

“I am puzzled by it,” Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said last week when asked about the requested budget cuts for the NIH. “Biomedical research leads to longer, healthier lives for American families, and it also helps us retain our edge in innovation in the world. And why would we want China, for example, to get the jump on new cures or effective treatments?”