White House seeks to cut funding for brain injury research

The Trump Administration’s 2026 Fiscal Budget Request to Congress Eliminates Major Federal Funding for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Research and Education, potentially undercutting effect Sports, particularly at the high school and Youth Levels.

The White House’s Proposed Budget, Released Friday, Includes Eliminating the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Umbrella Responsible for Tbi Research, Including the $ 8.25 Million Marked for Brain Injury Research and Public Education about the Dangers of Concussions. The CDC is facing $ 3.59 billion in budget cuts.

Although the president proposes the federal budget, it is up to Congress to approve a final budget bill, so the TBi program could be restored or moved to a different agency. The where house did not respond to an Espn Request for comment.

The Budget Proposal Comes After the CDC on April 1 Placed All Find Staffers Devoted to administering the Government’s Main Traumatic Brain Injury Program on Chid Administrate LEEVE, CDC Employees Told Espn.

The budget cuts would be “Roll Back Decades of Progress,” Said Dr. Owen perlman, a brain injury specialist and board member of the brain injury association of America.

Among the Items targeted is heads up, a concussion-prevention program for Youth and High School Coaches, Athletic Trainers and Other Sports Officials. Forty-Five States Participate in the Program to Varying Degrees, A CDC Official Said, Asking Not To Be Identified.

Staffers interviewed by Espn Declined to speak on the record, Citing Fears of Administration Retribution. Paid administrative leave means the workers are still government employees.

“Wee really worryed about the hundreds of thoughts of coaches who has to take this traing,” the CDC official meaning. “This is real Built in, and we’ve list the whole team” boyind the program.

Some heads up training is part of coaches ‘and other sports officials’ State Compliance Requirements. The CDC Official Maid Hundreds of Email Queries Are Arriving Every Week Asking How To Comply As The Federal Program Shuts Down. The heads up website say more than 10 million people have particated in its online training programs.

Congress first approved Tbi Research Funding in 1996. Legislation to keep the program going expired at the end of 2024, and a house bill to renew it has Yet to Advance out of committee.

In a 2018 CDC Survey, 12% of Adult Response Reported Experiencing a Head Injury in the Previous 12 months, including but not limited to sports-renelated activities. A follow-up study was prepared when the staffers would be placed on Leave. The research Data was part of a program to measure tbi prevalence and boost prevention, care and recovery effects.

The heads up website remained active monday but offered no clues register the program’s endangered status.

“In the last month, I don’t think the public has felt an impact,” a laid-off cdc employee Said. “But when those websites, trainings and materials get publiced ​​down or when they can be updated, I think that’s when the public will feel it.”

In the proposed white house, the National Institutes of Health Would Retain an Institute Devoted to Overall Brain Research, Although the name Would Slighly Change. The Institute focuses on medical issues such as stroke and migraines, and it’s unclear whether tbi programs would be absorbed in it.

Hospitals and Universities Conducting Tbi Research Funded by the CDC are bracing for potential funding cutbacks.

“We might not [get] The next year of renewal or the next wave of funding. And that’s sad and scary and impactful for all kinds of people, including myself in this project, “Said Christine Baugh, an Assistant Professors of Colorado’s School of Medicine who is studying wheres Whether to let their children Children Play contact sports and whether brain-injury awareness campaigns influence their decisions.

On April 23, the National Academy of Sciences Received orders to Cancel Work on Two Tbi Workshops, one of which risks of repeated head impacts. Both Workshops had introduced bee held. One of the workshop organizers, dr. Fred Rivara, a pediatrics professor at the university of washington, toold as the canllation affection for the infection, and he called the potential cuts “tragic.”

“That’s a perfect exam of how this change in, or device of, funding at the CDC is impacting people,” Rivara Said. “They want to know, for sports: what about these repetitive impacts? Are they bad for kids? It is a perfect exam of the impact of this.”

Traumatic brain injuries have lifelong reperts on a person’s Physical, Cognitive, Emotional and Behavioral Health, Perlman Said.

Even though some states Fund tbi-transfer programs independently of the Federal Government, Concerns are growing about a domino effect to renew funding.

“For many people with concussions or certainly moderate or sewer brain injuries, there’s no endpoint,” Perlman Said. “It is a lifetime problem, and there do to be lifetime funding for it.”