Xavier Becerra, the Health and Human Services Secretary under former President Joe Biden, blasted the budget proposed by President Donald Trump by calling cuts to the HHS a "demolition plan."
"This isn't a budget proposal — it's a demolition plan. Slashing $33 billion in NIH funding and cratering public health research is an assault on our nation's ability to prepare for and respond to disease, medical innovation, and everyday care that millions of Americans rely on," Becerra posted on X, Friday.
Earlier in the day, Trump released his much-anticipated budget for fiscal year 2026 that has proposed $163 billion in cuts. Nondefense discretionary spending will be at its lowest level since 2000 when adjusted for inflation according to a senior OMB official.
The Trump budget calls for $33.3 billion or 26.2% of the HHS's discretionary funding. These requested cuts included a $3.6 billion reduction in discretionary funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, $18 billion for the National Institutes of Health, and $674 million for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Program Management.
The one HHS program that saw an increase in spending was current HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "MAHA" — "make America healthy again" — program that seeks to promote nutrition and exercise.
Trump's budget comes the same week as the former attorney general for California announced his candidacy for governor of the Golden State. In a growing field of Democrat candidates, Becerra's stated in his opening appeal to voters that he is best equipped to go after Trump. During his tenure in the Biden administration, Becerra noted that he sued Trump over 100 times while he was California's attorney general during the president's first term.
"I didn't sue the Trump administration 120 times because I wanted to sue him. I sued him because he came after California," Becerra said in his announcement video.