Trump Has Quietly Throttled an Agency Devoted to the Safety of American Healthcare

The Trump administration has effectively halted most activities at AHRQ, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a small federal agency devoted to improving patient safety. Per KFF Health News, at least one hundred four grants were canceled in mid-July, even though Congress appropriated three hundred forty-five million dollars for the agency this fiscal year — of which less than fifteen million has been spent on grants. About seventy-five percent of the agency's staff have been fired or quit since President Trump took office. AHRQ has a substantial track record: from twenty fourteen to twenty seventeen alone, its research prevented an estimated twenty thousand five hundred deaths and saved seven point seven billion dollars in healthcare costs. Those projects focused on everything from curbing hospital infections to training doctors in rural areas to handle high-risk pregnancies. But as KFF Health News reports, the administration fired all of AHRQ's grant managers and says artificial intelligence can replace the evidence review work scientists currently do. Researchers whose work was canceled — some aligned with the agency's own stated priorities — are confused about the rationale, and a lawsuit is pending arguing the move violates Congress's power of the purse.

Listen to this story

Hear this and more stories in a personalized audio briefing.

Open The Chonkerton