United States president Donald Trump has targeted the National Institutes of Health, a frequent funder of African medical research, for sweeping cuts in his 2020 financial year budget.
Trump has also proposed a raft of cuts to global health support programmes in what is his third budget in power. However, the fate of previous budgets suggests it is likely to be substantially altered by Congress.
If Trump gets his way, the NIH Common Fund could be one of the biggest losers. The fund would be cut by US$86 million and the NIH by US$4.5 billion in total. The Common Fund is a prominent funder of African research, and has made large contributions to the Human Health and Heredity in Africa (H3Africa) project, among other projects.
Another target is the Fogarty International Center, which also supports African research, and which the Trump administration has unsuccessfully targeted for cuts in the past. The centre would receive US$11m less than its 2019 allotment of US$78m. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases stands to lose US$770m.
The United States Agency for International Development fares better overall, with a proposed increase of US$167m. However, certain proposed cuts could still prove detrimental to African interests.
Contributions to several international organisations relevant to African researchers are earmarked for cuts: the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (US$1.1m); the International Atomic Energy Agency (US$4.4m); and the Word Health Organization (US$260,000).
The African Development Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development would get no funding in 2020 if the proposals go through. The AfDB received US$32.4m and IFAD US$68.3m in 2019.
The USAID Young Leaders Initiatives, which includes the Young African Leaders Initiative, will have its budget more than halved.
Trump’s budget also proposes a US$530m cut in the State Department’s global health programmes in Africa. This would include cuts of US$338.1m in South Africa, US$213.5m in Kenya, and almost US$200m in Tanzania. However, Mozambique stands to receive US$156.6m more under Trump’s proposals.
The budget allocates a total of US$3.1bn from the USAID and State Department budgets for HIV prevention, care and treatment and US$960m for replenishing the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis. Prevention of child and maternal deaths receives US$1.6bn and malaria activities in Africa and elsewhere US$674m. Tuberculosis prevention receives US$261m and neglected tropical diseases US$75m.
The budget includes swingeing cuts for the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation. However, Trump’s previous two budgets made similar threats to science. And everything suggests that Congress will overturn the cuts a third time when they get their hands on the proposal.
Unsurprisingly, the budget has come in for criticism from the science establishment and from politicians not allied to Trump.
Rush Holt, head of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said the proposed cuts to research spending would “derail our nation’s science enterprise”. He urged lawmakers to “act in the public’s best interest” and protect federal investments in science.
Democrat Eddie Bernice Johnson, chairwoman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, said Trump had “once again rejected reality”. She criticised the “simply absurd” budget proposal and its “unreasonably deep cuts” to federal science agencies.
Additional reporting by Ben Upton.