More people will die due to White House’s plans to slash nearly $2.7bn from National Cancer Institute, workers warn
More patients may die as a result of plans drawn up by the Trump administration to cut billions of dollars from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), veteran federal government workers and experts have warned.
Nearly $2.7bn would be cut from the agency, which is the largest funder of cancer research in the world – a decline of 37.2% from the previous year – under a budget proposal for 2026, in the latest effort to cut staff and funding.
“These cuts are absolutely gut wrenching,” Erin Lavik, former deputy director and chief technology officer at the NCI’s division of cancer prevention, told the Guardian.
Lavik was fired along with a swath of probationary workers at the institute in February; put on administrative leave in response to a judge’s ruling to halt the firings in March; and then terminated again in April.
