The Trump Administration’s Quiet Take Down Of Healthcare Safety Agency

Aug 25, 2026 09:33 AM - 1 hour ago 2

You astir apt heard astir the Trump administration’s accelerated return down successful 2025 of the U.S. Agency for International Development aft it had been astir for 63 years. Well, successful 2026, the Trump management been doing a overmuch quieter return down of different long-standing national agency—the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The repercussions of this takedown of AHRQ, though, will apt beryllium heard and felt by many, galore patients for years and moreover decades to come.

On July 15 AHRQ Halted At Least 104 Grants

That’s because for 27 years, the AHRQ has been the only national agency focused connected supporting activity and investigation into improving the information and value of healthcare—hence the sanction of the agency. That’s beautiful darn important worldly if you hap to person a quality caput and assemblage and frankincense require healthcare astatine immoderate constituent successful your life aliases astatine slightest attraction astir personification who does. An study conducted by the agency had estimated that successful the 2014 to 2017 play alone, AHRQ-funded studies had saved astir 20,500 deaths and $7.7 cardinal successful healthcare costs.

Such studies person included investigation connected preventing and controlling healthcare-associated infections, reducing of aesculapian errors, safely dispensing medications, measuring infirmary value and processing exertion that tin thief amended the information and acquisition of patients. An estimated 250,000 to 400,000 group successful the U.S. dice each twelvemonth from preventable aesculapian errors. And an estimated 75,000 to 99,000 dice each twelvemonth from healthcare-associated infections.

However, without AHRQ, those willing successful researching specified areas whitethorn struggle to find funding, particularly pinch what the Trump management on pinch Elon Musk’s alleged Department of Government Efficiency person done to National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funding. Therefore, a July 15 missive from the AHRQ must person made a batch of healthcare value and information researchers astir the state spell “Argh”—telling them that AHRQ was halting astatine slightest 104 of their grants.

AHRQ Had Gone A Year Without Issuing New Grants

That’s aft the AHRQ had gone complete a twelvemonth without issuing immoderate caller grants and spending little than $15 cardinal of the $345 cardinal allocated by Congress to the agency for the existent fiscal year. So unless AHRQ someway ends up issuing, oh, $330 cardinal successful grants from now to September 30, the Trump management will person fundamentally ignored what Congress had wanted and indicated, which wouldn’t beryllium the first clip that’s happened.

Last August, the Society for General Internal Medicine did initiate a lawsuit against AHRQ Director Roger Klein, MD, JD, and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., JD complete AHRQ’s not issuing caller grants. The suit alleges that specified actions—or alternatively inaction—violates a 1974 rule that emphasizes that Congress and not the U.S. President and his Executive Brach yet determines what national agencies tin walk connected what. Of note, the July 15 grant-halting missive from AHRQ did not mention the T-word—meaning “termination”—and alternatively utilized the building "not awarded continued funding," which whitethorn person ramifications erstwhile it comes to what happens to lawsuits for illustration the 1 initiated by SGIM.

HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard has indicated that AHRQ has been aiming to found a caller "framework" for grants. However, it’s not been clarified what this model mightiness beryllium and erstwhile it mightiness beryllium revealed. I will proceed to scope retired to contacts astatine HHS for much clarification.

AHRQ Has Shed And Lost Three-Quarters Of Its Personnel

In the meantime, if you do effort to telephone aliases different scope retired to AHRQ to inquire questions astir what’s happening, bully luck getting a response. The agency has mislaid astir three-quarters of its unit since Donald Trump ascended to the U.S. Presidency successful January 2025. Those unit losses person travel done a scope of different firings, layoffs resignations and different alleged RIFs aliases reductions successful forces. Those who person been astatine AHRQ told maine that by precocious 2025, the number of quiet chairs already acold outnumbered the number of group astatine AHRQ meetings.

Trump Had Already Wanted To Eliminate AHRQ During His First Presidential Term

What’s happening correct now pinch AHRQ should not beryllium a surprise. Back successful 2017, I wrote successful Forbes astir really the projected fund being put distant by past first word U.S. President Donald Trump and his management had already tried to efficaciously destruct AHRQ. Congress astatine the time, though, fundamentally treated this fund connection for illustration a brace of parachute pants and ignored it, leaving AHRQ pinch a budget.

The Trump-appointed Director Of AHRQ Has Not Been Spending The Funds That Congress Allocated

However, during Trump’s 2nd term, his management seems to person much trump cards up its sleeve erstwhile it comes to ignoring Congress erstwhile Congress ignores the Trump administration’s fund proposals. In 2025, the 2nd coming of the Trump management erstwhile again kept AHRQ retired of its projected budget, as I covered successful Forbes. Congress erstwhile again ignored specified a connection and budgeted money for AHRQ. This time, though, the Trump management has apparently circumvented Congress by conscionable keeping AHRQ from spending its Congressional allocated funds.

It remains to beryllium seen whether the Trump management will moreover support AHRQ arsenic a abstracted agency aliases dissolve it entirely. Kennedy did denote successful March 2025 plans to rotation AHRQ and different HHS agencies into a caller Office of Strategy. And Klein hasn’t really made nationalist statements to thief everyone intelligibly understand the guidance of AHRQ since the Trump management appointed him successful July 2025 to beryllium the caller AHRQ director. Klein’s AHRQ website bio does lists him arsenic “a board-certified molecular pathologist and lawyer who was formerly Chief Medical Officer of OmniSeq, Inc., a tumor profiling institution that was acquired by LabCorp” but doesn’t mention overmuch astir his imagination for healthcare value and safety.

Historically, national agencies person incorporated various advisory committees of outer technological experts to thief supply much transparency and oversight of its activities—especially its backing ones. But actions for illustration Trump’s executive orders and the caller White House Office of Management and Budget rule that I’ve covered successful Forbes have progressively lessened the domiciled of technological adjacent reappraisal and different specified outer oversight successful guiding national agency operations specified arsenic grantsmaking. That’s concurrently accrued the powerfulness of the President and his governmental appointees complete what the national agencies do and wherever the agencies’ backing goes.

The problem is healthcare value and information activity whitethorn look for illustration thing you tin trim without instantly clear ramifications—sort of for illustration cutting the White House pandemic preparedness and consequence capabilities successful 2017 and the food-borne unwellness prevention and power programs successful 2025. But yet the ramifications of specified cuts will beryllium seen, which is what happened successful 2020 pinch the COVID-19 pandemic and this twelvemonth pinch the 12 progressive food-borne unwellness outbreaks now occurring. And it’s safe to opportunity that cutting activity connected healthcare information and value will person its ramifications down the road.