Latest news with #PattyMurray
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
New White House budget plan eyes dramatic cuts to cancer research
While much of the focus on Capitol Hill lately has been on the Republicans' megabill, the White House quietly unveiled some details of its budget plan for the next fiscal year late on Friday afternoon. If you didn't hear about it, that's because you probably weren't intended to. As Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a written statement, 'It's telling that President Trump has chosen to release his budget on a Friday night with no fanfare whatsoever.' As The New York Times reported, the Trump administration's plan would impose steep spending cuts across a 'vast array of education, health, housing and labor programs,' though there was one element of this that stood out for me. From the Times' article: [A]s part of a reorientation that slashed federal health spending, the president proposed chopping funding at the National Cancer Institute by more than $2.7 billion, nearly a 40 percent decrease, drawing a sharp rebuke from cancer research supporters late Friday. ... The cut to cancer research is part of a roughly $18 billion reduction at the National Institutes of Health.' 'For the past 50 years, every significant medical breakthrough, especially in the treatment of cancer, has been linked to sustained federal investment in research' by the institute, the American Cancer Society Action Network said in a statement. 'This commitment has contributed to the remarkable statistic of over 18 million cancer survivors currently living in the U.S. today.' What's more, as Murray's office noted in an analysis of the White House blueprint, Donald Trump and his team also intend to take regressive steps on cancer by eliminating the Title X program, which helps millions of Americans afford cancer screenings. Both as vice president and again as president, Joe Biden emphasized cancer research more than any modern American political leader. The Democrat's White House made his cancer 'moonshot' a leading administration priority. His Republican successor clearly has a different approach in mind. The release of Trump's budget comes roughly a month after the administration laid off employees at the NIH's cancer research institute. A month before that, The Washington Post published a striking report on potentially breakthrough research at the National Institutes of Health, where scientists have 'demonstrated a promising step toward using a person's own immune cells to fight gastrointestinal cancers.' The day the scientists' paper was published, the Trump administration imposed devastating layoffs at the NIH. The Post's report added, 'Two patients' treatments using the experimental therapy had to be delayed because NIH's capacity to make personalized cell therapies has been slowed by the firing of highly skilled staff and by purchasing slowdowns. Those occurred even before major layoffs took place.' A few weeks before that, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration also terminated funding for research at Columbia University, where scientists were 'examining the use of artificial intelligence to detect early signs of breast cancer.' Two weeks before that, the Times also reported on researchers at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Pittsburgh who'd spent months preparing for a clinical trial of a new drug to treat advanced cancers of the mouth, throat and voice box. They were all set to start enrolling patients when their clinical trials were halted — because of a hiring freeze imposed by Trump, Elon Musk and the DOGE initiative. American voters last fall might not have realized that a Republican victory in 2024 would mean sweeping cuts to cancer research, but here we are. This post updates our related earlier coverage. This article was originally published on
The Hill
2 days ago
- Health
- The Hill
White House asks for steep cuts to HHS budget
The Big Story The White House is seeking $94.7 billion to fund the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in fiscal year 2026, a decrease of more than $31 billion. © AP The proposal released late Friday provides new details that were missing from the administration's initial release about a month ago. The latest proposal reflects HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s focus on chronic disease and desire to reshape the federal health agencies. The White House said the plan 'prioritizes resources to efficiently achieve our goal to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA).' While presidential budget requests aren't signed into law, they can serve as a blueprint for lawmakers as they begin crafting their funding groups and outside experts said the proposal shows a concerted effort to shift funding away from public health priorities and biomedical research. For instance, the plan calls for slashing the budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by nearly 40 percent from FY 2025. 'You might as well gift wrap the future and hand it to China,' Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the Senate Appropriations Committee's top Democrat, said in a statement. It would consolidate the agency's 27 institutes, leaving just three intact: the National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the National Institute of Aging, with significant funding cuts. The others would be consolidated into five new institutes and centers. 'This restructuring will create efficiencies within NIH that will allow the agency to focus on true science, and coordinate research to make the best use of federal funds,' according to the HHS Budget in Brief. But the organizations impacted don't see it that way. 'Returning to funding levels from two decades ago – and three decades ago when accounting for biomedical inflation – will set this nation back dramatically in our ability to reduce death and suffering from a disease that is expected to kill more than 618,000 Americans this year alone,' the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) said in a statement. 'If the proposal is enacted, Americans today and tomorrow will be sicker, poorer, and die younger,' Mary Woolley, CEO of Research!America, a science advocacy nonprofit, said in a statement. Russell Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said the administration wants a strong NIH and will continue to prioritize cancer research. But in a CNN interview Sunday, Vought said the agency has gotten too big and too political. 'It's more about the NIH, and the NIH has been a bureaucracy that we believe has been weaponized against the American people,' he told CNN. Welcome to The Hill's Health Care newsletter, we're Nathaniel Weixel, Joseph Choi and Alejandra O'Connell-Domenech — every week we follow the latest moves on how Washington impacts your health. Did someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here. Essential Reads How policy will be impacting the health care sector this week and beyond: Democrats hammer Vought over Medicaid claims: 'Outrageous lies' Democratic lawmakers are admonishing President Trump's budget chief for claiming the GOP's mega-bill will not cause anyone to lose Medicaid benefits, contradicting independent assessments that war billions could lose coverage if it becomes law. Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought told CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday's episode of 'State of the Union' that concerns over the Trump administration's domestic policy package … Johnson says 4.8 million Americans won't lose Medicaid access 'unless they choose to do so' Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) doubled down on his claim that there won't be Medicaid cuts in President Trump's 'big, beautiful bill,' despite projections that millions of low-income individuals would lose health insurance as a result of the bill. Johnson, during an appearance on NBC's 'Meet the Press,' pushed back on independent projections that the bill would lead to 4.8 million people … RFK Jr. fires 'opening salvo' on vaccine status quo Public health experts say Robert F. Kennedy Jr is exactly who they thought he was. The Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary — who is also the nation's most well-known vaccine skeptic — is remaking the agency in his image, casting doubt on the benefits of vaccines, and erecting new barriers that will make it harder for people who want shots to get them, like requiring new vaccines to be tested against placebos. … Around the Nation Local and state headlines on health care: What We're Reading Health news we've flagged from other outlets: What Others are Reading Most read stories on The Hill right now: Kavanaugh signals Supreme Court will soon decide constitutionality of banning AR-15s The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up a case that involves whether possessing AR-15s is protected by the Second Amendment, but the court's … Read more 'Donors' vs 'takers': SALT battle stirs debate between blue and red states President Trump's domestic agenda bill is spurring a debate over whether blue states are subsidizing red states. After a successful pressure campaign … Read more What People Think Opinions related to health submitted to The Hill: You're all caught up. See you tomorrow! Like this newsletter? Take a moment to view our other topical products here 📩 Thank you for signing up! Subscribe to more newsletters here
Fox News
3 days ago
- Climate
- Fox News
As US braces for ‘significant' wildfires, Trump's agriculture secretary addresses Forest Service departures
The Trump administration is prepared for what could be a "significant fire season," despite thousands of Forest Service employees departing under Trump's deferred resignation offer, according to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. "It did not compromise and will not compromise at all, 1%, what needs to be done to make sure that we are ready," Rollins told Fox News Digital Friday. More than 4,000 U.S. Forest Service employees voluntarily resigned under buyouts offered by the Trump administration, according to a POLITICO report. Wildland firefighters were largely exempt from the buyouts and a federal hiring freeze, but blue state leaders say President Donald Trump's slash-and-burn approach cuts key support staff. "The reality is that Trump has decimated the U.S. Forest Service," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a May press conference. "Nearly every single Forest Service employee supports fire operations in some capacity." Many of the workers who departed held Red Cards, meaning they have special training to either fight fires or "provide essential frontline support to the firefighting crews," Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, said. But Rollins said the Biden administration wasted taxpayer funds on unsustainable and irresponsible hiring of people who "really had no job description." "That was in the — not hundreds — in the thousands of hirings that went on just in the Forest Service in the last administration," she said, adding that the service is becoming "more lean" but no less effective. Rollins and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum signed a memo on May 20 signaling the Trump administration's wildfire response strategy. It calls for the elimination of barriers and "unnecessary procedures" to ensure a rapid response when wildfires threaten life and property. The memo also directs the Forest Service to examine the impact of "voluntary departures" on the firefighting workforce and propose a plan to "remedy critical vacancies." Non-fire staff should also be deployed to support frontline firefighters as wildfire activity increases, allowing for a "more robust and more intentional and more effective force as we move into this season," Rollins said. "But we are not going to waste taxpayer dollars the way that we've seen happen in the past," she said. Wildfires have already scorched more than one million acres across the country so far this year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. The center's outlook shows higher temperatures and drier conditions than typical across much of the West this summer. "Our prayer is that it won't actually happen, that it will be lighter than usual, but indicators are showing that it actually may be a heavy fire season," Rollins said. She added she's confident Americans will see "an unprecedented level of coordination" among federal, state and local governments as the summer progresses. "There is zero compromising [on] having the most prepared, most effective [firefighters]," Rollins said. "And we'll do everything possible to ensure that they have every tool they need to be successful this season."
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Patty Murray's Hanford site victory proves the power of persistence
When bureaucratic roadblocks threatened to stall Hanford cleanup and eliminate local jobs, Sen. Patty Murray stepped up and got results. Her recent confrontation with Energy Secretary Chris Wright proved that strong advocacy can break through federal inaction. Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee, got into a heated exchange with Wright during a hearing about the Department of Energy's 2026 budget. She told him that Hanford subcontractors were on the brink of layoffs because DOE had locked up congressionally approved funding for the current fiscal year. Even though President Donald Trump had signed off on the money in March, the Energy Department had not provided a required spending plan to Congress on time. The uncertainty jeopardized ongoing work at Hanford. America owes this support not just as the right thing to do environmentally, but also as a decades-old debt from the many years Hanford produced plutonium for nuclear weapons and served as a repository for nuclear and other toxic waste. The Tri-Cities community stepped up when the nation needed it, and now the debt is due. If withholding funds was an early sign that the Trump administration was deprioritizing Hanford, it augured serious trouble ahead. Murray didn't mince words with Wright. She made it clear that withholding congressionally appropriated money constituted impoundment and was illegal. Washington's senior senator has been a fierce advocate for Hanford site cleanup. She has fought attempts by multiple administrations to shortchange funding. She understands that delays cost more in the long run and put the community at risk. Last year she secured a record $3 billion for cleanup, a $191 million increase over the previous year. Her commitment to Hanford cleanup paid off yet again with Wright. The day after the hearing, the Energy Department released the funds to prevent subcontractor layoffs. Murray had given a master class in effective advocacy and political pressure applied at exactly the right moment. This probably won't be the last time Washington will count on Murray to go to bat for Hanford. The Trump administration has implemented sweeping changes at DOE. More than 3,500 employees took buyouts and hundreds more were fired. Projects that require constant oversight and technical expertise become especially vulnerable under those circumstances. For example, in January, DOE, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington State Department of Ecology finalized an agreement on treating tank waste after nearly four years of negotiations. It sets ambitious timelines for processing dangerous radioactive waste. Flat or reduced funding could require shifting money from other cleanup priorities to meet this project's deadlines, delaying remediation along the Columbia River. Hanford has 56 million gallons of high-level radioactive and chemical waste stored in underground tanks. About one-third of them are suspected of leaking in the past with three currently believed to be leaking, seeping toward the Columbia River. Every delay in cleanup increases the risk of further contamination. The cleanup work also is a cornerstone of the Tri-Cities economy. It employs thousands of workers directly and supports countless more jobs throughout the region. When funding gets frozen or delayed, the ripple effects hit everyone from engineers and technicians to local businesses. Murray's success in unlocking cleanup funds demonstrates the value of having experienced advocates in Washington who understand both the technical complexities of Hanford cleanup and the political realities of federal budgeting. She and the rest of Washington's congressional delegation must ensure that the federal government does not abandon its commitment to the Tri-Cities.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
After Trump administration axes $500 million from Washington dam project, Patty Murray says she won't let it happen again
May 31—WASHINGTON — The most fundamental job of Congress is to fund the government each year, typically through a bipartisan process that distributes dollars more or less evenly between red states and blue states. But a dustup over a dam construction project in Washington state has thrown a wrench into that process and raised the stakes of a government funding showdown in September. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, has accused President Donald Trump's administration of pulling $500 million that Congress allocated last year to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a fish passage project on the Green River, east of Tacoma. In a news conference at the Capitol alongside her fellow Democratic senators from Washington and California, Murray said that move undermines the trust lawmakers rely on to negotiate spending bills. "Trump is robbing our states in broad daylight, and we are not going to be quiet about this," Murray said. "President Trump is ripping up the road map that we all agreed on, even the House Republicans, and turning the Army Corps construction funds into his personal political slush fund." After Republicans and Democrats in Congress agreed last year to appropriate the money for construction at Howard Hanson Dam, Trump shot down the bipartisan funding bill they had negotiated and Congress eventually passed a short-term funding bill, with the help of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and a handful of other Democrats. Murray staunchly opposed that legislation, warning that its wording would give extraordinary leeway to the White House. Her fears came to pass when Trump's Office of Management and Budget — helmed by Russell Vought, a lead architect of the policy initiative known as Project 2025 — intervened to redirect Army Corps funding from states represented in the Senate by Democrats to those represented by Republicans. As the Columbian of Vancouver, Washington, reported, an analysis by Murray's office found that the Trump administration reallocated funds that were split roughly 50-50 between red and blue states so that only 33% of the money goes to states with two Democratic senators, while 64% goes to states with only GOP senators and 4% to "purple" states with one senator from each party. In addition to zeroing out the funding for Howard Hanson Dam, the Trump administration cut overall funding for the Army Corps' civil works projects by about $1.5 billion and slashed the Columbia River Fish Mitigation program — intended to reduce the impact of dams on salmon and steelhead runs — by nearly half. In response to questions from The Spokesman-Review, the Office of Management and Budget didn't directly say what role it had played in redirecting Army Corps' resources or why it had defunded the Howard Hanson Dam project. But the office said the new Army Corps work plan "will generate billions of dollars in economic activity by building American energy dominance and shipping capacity while investing in important conservation projects." "The available funds were allocated by the administration based on need and urgency, in accordance with the guidelines set by Congress," the office said in a statement. In a House subcommittee hearing on May 21, Army Corps official Robyn Colosimo confirmed that it was the Office of Management and Budget, and likely Vought , that made the decision to shift the money to red states. The Army Corps didn't respond to a request for comment from The Spokesman-Review, but a spokesman for the agency previously told the Columbian that the Columbia River Fish Mitigation funding is "an important source for many projects in the basin" and the Army Corps would "work with our partners in the region to prioritize projects depending on how much funding we actually receive from Congress." That proposition gets more complicated if the Trump administration, which has taken a maximalist view of executive power, can change how much money agencies receive from Congress. At the news conference, Murray said she intends to "explore every opportunity and every wording" as she crafts the language of the next funding bill "to make sure that we have funds protected." Congress has been historically unproductive this year, and the annual appropriations process is so far behind schedule that another short-term spending bill is the most realistic option to avert a government shutdown when the current stopgap bill expires at the end of September. Even with Republicans in control of both the House and Senate, they need Democratic senators to help pass a spending bill. That gives Democrats some leverage to include language in the legislation to require that funds be spent as Congress directs, but it would require the party to be willing to let the government shut down. By choosing to help Republicans pass the partisan spending bill in March, Schumer may have squandered that leverage and encouraged the GOP to try the same move again. If Murray can help it, she said, the government won't operate under such an open-ended funding bill when the next fiscal year begins in October. Orion Donovan Smith's work is funded in part by members of the Spokane community via the Community Journalism and Civic Engagement Fund. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.
