Research Budget Cuts Undermine Our Fundamental Rights and the Public Good

Human Rights Research Center
3 hours ago
20 min read

Author: Sylvia He, PhD

December 17, 2025

Many government funding agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), have experienced or will face significant budget cuts. In short, public-funded research—a cornerstone institution that has saved lives, improved health, and driven innovation and economic growth—is under siege. There are many reasons to continue funding current and future research and innovation because they provide immediate benefits to our well-being as well as long-term, unforeseen benefits. More importantly, publicly funded research serves the common good that the private sector cannot or is unwilling to provide, protecting the right to health and safety of every member of society, especially the poor, voiceless, and powerless. Demolishing basic research will not only have severe short-term consequences on our health and economic situation but also affect future innovations and public good in the long term.

[Image credit: Rabbit75_IST/ Getty Images]

Budget Cuts at Research Agencies

The U.S. federal government has been the dominant funding source for basic research, both domestically and globally. Many U.S. government agencies, such as the NIH, have been the world leaders in supporting discoveries and innovations.

But for the fiscal year of 2026, the White House is proposing to cut the budget of the NIH by about 40%, from $48 billion to $27 billion. The House Appropriations Committee is proposing a 23% cut of the NSF budget. The budget cut at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will be more than a quarter (27%). In addition, the reorganization at the USDA will result in significant cuts in agricultural and forest research. Moreover, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) budget will be cut by 65%, affecting its regulatory arm as well as its research arm.

Health and Economic Benefits of Publicly Funded Research

Health Benefits

The most tangible health benefits provided by public-funded research are the number of deaths prevented and the number of lives improved. Overall, the increase in research funding has contributed to the lengthening of life expectancy, from approximately 60 years in 1940 to 79 years today, as research findings have helped improve disease treatment and standardize healthcare practices.

Public-funded research plays a significant role in drug discovery, especially in the early stages. Before a pharmaceutical company can develop a specific drug to target disease, it needs to have a detailed understanding of said disease, such as what causes it, how it progresses, how it can be diagnosed, and how to predict its possible outcomes. Answering these questions often takes years, even decades, with prolonged and sustained effort and no monetary returns in sight. It is not surprising that public (government and non-profit) research and development provides most of the funding. For example, NIH funding contributed to the research associated with every one of the 210 new drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from 2010 to 2016.

One of the earliest impacts of publicly funded research on drug development occurred more than 70 years ago. Penicillin, the first true antibiotic, was discovered in 1928 in the United Kingdom using public funding. However, it had no clinical applications until American government researchers worked out a way to mass-produce it. Subsequently, penicillin became instrumental in treating infections in soldiers during the Second World War, reducing the death rate by 15% or saving about 100,000 soldiers. Since then, penicillin, along with other antibiotics, has saved millions of lives.

Uncovering the foundational knowledge on cancer, research at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) within the NIH has helped develop cancer drugs and increase the survival rate of people with various forms of cancer. From 1991 to 2020, the cancer-related deaths in the U.S. declined by 33%, enabling almost four million persons to live longer. Specifically, NCI researchers significantly contributed to the development of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, helping prevent cervical cancer and slashing HPV infection by 64% in the U.S. In addition, screening and clinical guidelines for lung cancer, created based on government-funded research, contributed to a 54% decline in deaths among American men since 1990 and a 30% decline among American women since 2022.

As for cardiovascular disease, deaths from heart disease in the U.S. have dropped by 68% from 1969 to 2015, partly due to NIH-funded research that identified risk factors, including smoking, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure, and helped establish preventive strategies as well as develop new treatments, such as artificial heart valves, whose replacement is helping more than 100,000 patients annually in the U.S., as well as stroke prevention drugs like tissue plasminogen activator to break up blood clots.

Moreover, vaccines provide significant health benefits. According to an analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), routine childhood immunization has prevented 508 million cases of illness, 32 million hospitalizations, and over 1.1 million deaths in 30 cohorts of children born between 1994 and 2023. Particularly, the measles vaccination, at a cost of less than $2 per child, has saved about 60 million lives worldwide. In addition, COVID-19 vaccines prevented 14.4 to 19.8 million deaths globally in the first year since their rollout, reducing the death rate by more than 50%; meanwhile, they prevented 3.2 million deaths in the United States, a decrease in death rate of 75%.

While pharmaceutical companies have developed most of the anti-viral drugs, public research has helped optimize their use. For example, NIH funding supported the development of the HIV cocktail, which contains a combination of several anti-viral drugs, to treat HIV-positive patients. Patients who regularly take the cocktail can live longer. Additionally, the level of HIV in their bodies will drop to a level so low that they are no longer infectious and cannot transmit the virus to others. In other words, the HIV cocktail helps control the epidemic by taking HIV-positive patients out of the pool of infectious individuals.

On the other hand, research-informed healthcare practices have also helped improve the lives of babies and mothers. Providing regular care to mothers and babies, screening for problems, and educating mothers about nutrition and child care have reduced child mortality from 30 per 1000 live births in 1950 (108,000 deaths out of 3.6 million) to about 5 per 1000 currently (18,000 deaths out of 3.6 million). The drastically reduced child mortality rate is the major contributor to increasing the overall life expectancy of the entire population.

All these impactful research projects will be affected by research cuts. When funding stops, all funded projects will stop immediately, regardless of their stage of progress or the critical need they address, such as helping children stay alive while they wait for a heart transplant. A little bit further down the timeline, research budget cuts will affect how effectively we will develop treatments, such as vaccines, to prepare for future health crises, such as pandemics.

Economic Benefits

People not directly helped by newly developed drugs or vaccines still benefit from the economic growth driven by research and innovation.

Globally, the return on investment (ROI) of various vaccines ranges from 20% to more than 50% in 94 low and middle-income countries from 2011 to 2030.

In the U.S., routine childhood immunization provides a societal ROI of 10x, or more than $10 on every $1 spent, according to the CDC analysis on childhood vaccination. The 10x return includes averted medical costs and productivity losses, totaling net societal savings of about $2.7 trillion and $540 billion in direct medical cost savings. More generally, the social ROI of innovations is 20% to 65% annually in the U.S., or 20 to 65 cents per dollar, according to one estimate. The Center for American Progress has an even higher estimate; it calculated the ROI of publicly funded scientific research and development to be 30% to 100%.

In comparison, the U.S. stock market, as measured by the S&P 500 index, grows about 10% annually. In other words, investing in research and innovations to ensure the health of everybody is 2x, even 10x, as profitable as investing in the stock market, every year.

Publicly Funded Research's Transformative Effects

Public funding also lays the groundwork for future innovations and technology commercialization by taking a long-term view and funding projects that lack a clear, immediate commercial impact or are too difficult or large-scale for the private sector to execute.

If there are no government-funded studies first to understand the causes of a disease or how to diagnose it, physicians cannot develop effective ways to treat or prevent it. Take the seminal Framingham Heart Study, which started in 1947 and was funded by the NIH. Over seven decades, it has identified risk factors of cardiovascular diseases, including smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and physical inactivity; as a result, there was a push to reduce smoking and improve lifestyle choices like diet and exercise, reducing the mortality rate sharply. Because age, sex, diabetes, and family history were also found to be important risk factors, physicians now implement more timely and effective screens and diagnoses. Consequently, the number of Americans who die from heart attacks has dropped nearly 90% since 1970, and more are living with chronic heart conditions.

Some projects, while necessary, are too challenging for the private sector. Take the example of penicillin production: Penicillin had no practical applications until American government researchers identified chemical conditions that enabled large-scale penicillin production at low costs. This was the first time a drug was produced at an industrial scale; the lessons learned and best practices established in this project became a significant part of the foundational know-how for the modern-day pharmaceutical industry. In other words, government-funded research gave birth to an industry that later became one of the biggest economic drivers.

Some basic research projects are so ambitious, risky, and expensive that they can only be done with government support. Upon completion, these projects will serve as the foundation and infrastructure for new fields of research.

For example, the Human Genome Project, a government-funded international collaboration to identify and map all the genes in the human genome, cost approximately $3 billion and took 13 years to complete. Many thought it was a bad idea; however, it became the foundation for many new disciplines, including bioinformatics, precision medicine, and genomics, while invigorating established fields of study, such as disease research and diagnostics.

Or take the Internet, the global system of interconnected computer networks. While the cost of its development was relatively modest at approximately $150 million, it was notable for involving multiple government agencies over a 20-year period. Without persistent and sustained efforts, the Internet would not have been developed. Without its development, the high-tech sector, which encompasses everything from telecommunications and electronics to software, social media, and AI, would not have taken off.

There is also the Global Positioning System (GPS), a satellite-based navigation system. It began as a government-funded project in the Department of Defense (DOD) in the 1970s and took more than 20 years and cost about $14 billion. Now, it has expanded to civil, commercial, and scientific applications, becoming an essential component of smartphones, vehicles, and watches that provide precise location information to ensure reliable aerial and ground transport and precise telecommunication.

Sometimes, by supporting research across different areas and directions, public funding lays the groundwork for these discoveries to synergize and achieve something greater than all the parts combined. The most recent, and probably the best, example is the COVID-19 vaccines. The NIH's consistent support for many projects, including the Human Genome Project, the study of the genetic code (how DNA is transcribed into RNA and how RNA translated into protein), the replication of DNA, the artificial amplification of DNA (polymerase chain reaction), the modification of mRNA for vaccines, and the cloning and manipulation of DNA (recombinant DNA technologies). During the COVID-19 pandemic, these technologies were essential tools for identifying the virus that causes COVID-19, figuring out how it works and how it can be targeted, eventually enabling the rapid development of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccines usually take many years, even decades, to develop, but the COVID-19 vaccine took only a year and a half, an unprecedented and astounding feat.

Preservation of the Public Good

The above arguments for public-funded research still take a transactional view of its benefits. However, it also serves a higher purpose–such as the preservation of the public good–informing the public of the risks and issues that special interest groups and private companies prefer not to acknowledge because addressing these concerns threatens their interests. Essentially, basic research serves as a police mechanism to help balance the common good against private interests.

Public Health

Epidemics

Epidemics affect low-resource groups disproportionately compared with high-resource groups. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic caused more deaths among the disadvantaged than in the affluent. Also, epidemics tend to increase income inequality. Moreover, data collection and analysis by publicly funded research is essential for bringing attention to epidemics that predominantly affect remote and economically disadvantaged areas.

For example, rural and relatively low-income states, such as West Virginia, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, were among the hardest hit by the opioid epidemic. Without the data collected by agencies such as the CDC, the connection between a rise in overdose deaths, an increase in addiction rates, and a surge in opioid prescriptions would not have been made. As a result, the cause of the epidemic, i.e, the increase in opioid marketing to doctors and higher prescription rates, would not have been identified. Journalists would not have begun to conduct in-depth investigations of pharmaceutical companies. Various parties would not have brought lawsuits against drug manufacturers and distributors to release more internal data. And the U.S. government would not have declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency in 2017.

Mental Health

Before the pharmaceutical industry can develop drugs for a disease, the disease must be understood. In the area of mental health, these diseases also need to be destigmatized before any meaningful discussion of treatment and prevention.

Lower-income persons suffer more frequently from depression, anxiety, and other common mental illnesses than those with higher incomes. Often, poverty and mental health issues drive each other in a vicious cycle. A lack of attention paid to and stigma against mental health issues will disproportionately disadvantage lower-income persons.

The NIH, through its institutes, has done significant work in destigmatizing mental health issues and treating them as medical conditions whose causes, treatments, and preventions can be investigated.

For example, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has studied the environmental causes of autism and run the Autism Genome Project to study its genetic context. Over 75 years, the National Institute of Mental Health has supported research on numerous mental health issues, including bipolar disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), suicide prevention, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), addiction, sexual health, and depression. In addition, the CDC has funded one of the earliest studies on childhood trauma, or adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). The CDC-Kaiser ACE study remains the foundational study for that field.

Partly due to the publicly funded research, the public stigma against mental illnesses, such as depression, substance abuse, and schizophrenia, in the U.S. has been decreasing.

Environmental Health

Environmental protection is not a profitable enterprise, perhaps except for contracts to clean up disasters caused by humans. Due to a lack of private-sector interest, publicly funded research is essential for monitoring and safeguarding the environment through data-based policy-making in the form of legislation and enforcement.

Oil Spills

Oil drilling usually takes place in remote, sparsely populated areas. As a result, oil spills tend to affect only the environment and wildlife at first and garner little or no public attention.

Take the oil spills caused by the explosion of a vessel owned by British Petroleum (BP) in 2010. Deepwater Horizon, an ultra-deepwater offshore drilling rig, exploded in the Gulf of Mexico and caused the largest oil spill in U.S. history. BP tried to downplay the extent of the damage. However, the NSF's involvement during the emergency response helped the public understand the movement of the oil spill, its effects on the deep ocean and the Gulf Coast, and how we can better prepare for the next spill. Educating the public about the magnitude of the problem fostered more public discourse and highlighted the need to protect the public interests.

Ozone Hole

The ozone layer in the Earth's stratosphere absorbs most of the sun's ultraviolet radiation. Ozone depletion increases humans' risk of getting skin cancer. Following the discovery of a substantial reduction of atmospheric ozone above Antarctica, the NSF assembled the 1986 National Ozone Expedition (NOZE) to investigate. NOZE researchers found that ozone depletion was caused by elevated levels of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which are synthetic chemical compounds. The findings by NOZE, the first strong demonstration of the harm caused by CFCs, were instrumental in driving the 1987 Montreal Protocol, the first global treaty to address environmental issues.

Insecticides

When insecticides were first invented, they were considered modern marvels.

Rachel Carson's seminal book, Silent Spring, was instrumental in alerting the public to the harmful effects of insecticides, such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), on wildlife and the environment. In the book, Carson synthesized findings from publicly funded research on DDT and documented cases, such as the case of Clear Lake, California, to demonstrate the effects of DDT. Carson's work spurred additional studies on the effects of insecticides. Consequently, Congress updated the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) of 1947 to expand pesticide regulation, laying the foundation for the present-day U.S. policy on pesticides.

However, the struggle over using or banning certain pesticides has continued. Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency has been considering the approval of new per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) as pesticides. PFASs do not break down naturally (hence nicknamed "forever chemicals"). In other words, they can accumulate in the environment, wildlife, and the human body, compounding any adverse effects. Publicly funded research will be essential for monitoring the effects of the new pesticides to safeguard the well-being of agricultural workers, wildlife, and water sources exposed to them.

Air and Water Pollution

Lower-income residents tend to live in areas with more environmental hazards than high-income residents. Urban, low-income populations are likely to experience more exposure to pollution and environmental hazards related to nearby industrial facilities and toxic sites. In turn, the elderly, the young, and the underresourced are more likely to be affected by these environmental hazards. The oldest and youngest are more vulnerable to air and other pollutants, noise, and extreme cold or heat.

The situation for the low-income group is worsened by their lack of resources to relocate to a better environment. For example, the communities along the stretch of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge exist alongside around 200 fossil fuel and petrochemical production plants and all the air pollution that they produce. The cancer risk for these residents is more than seven times the national average; so much so that the area is known as Cancer Alley. The residents are increasingly aware of the risk, but most of them have no choice but to stay.

Private interests, such as the petrochemical companies along the Cancer Alley, will not be conscientious about reducing environmental hazards. The government, the entity that is supposed to safeguard public interests, should have an active role in protecting the environment, and research data will help it make such decisions.

The earliest research on air pollution was done with public funding. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors appointed a Smoke and Fumes Commission to study the problem in 1943. The Commission's findings prompted the county supervisors to ban the emission of dense smoke and to establish an office of the Director of Air Pollution Control. Subsequent government-funded research efforts, such as the first U.S. Technical Conference on Air Pollution in 1950, helped pave the way for the passage of the Air Pollution Control Act of 1955, the first federal law on the subject.

The Federal Water Pollution Control Act, the first major U.S. law to address water pollution, was passed in 1948. In 1970, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established to implement and enforce environmental protection laws. In addition, ongoing public awareness and concern for water quality led to amendments to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, commonly known as the Clean Water Act (CWA) of 1972. The CWA provided additional funding for research and water-quality monitoring.

However, there are still gaps in the monitoring and regulations conducted by federal agencies. For example, the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, during which residents were exposed to drinking water with high levels of lead, was a result of delays and miscommunications between federal and local agencies. But thanks to the research by Marc Edwards at Virginia Tech, an NSF-funded environmental researcher, the crisis came to public attention. The crisis perfectly illustrates that it is not enough to enact laws to protect the environment; continual research is needed to monitor the conditions and ensure the implementation of policies and laws.

Conclusion

The saying that publicly funded research is a waste of taxpayer' money and, therefore, should be cut cannot be further from the truth. In a government of the people, by the people, for the people, publicly funded basic research not only provides health benefits to patients but also economic benefits to the rest of us. Most importantly, it is vital for establishing and maintaining justice, i.e., protecting the rights of the public, the poor, the weak, and the voiceless from corporate interests, even before we consider it the government's obligation to fulfill the social contract. It ensures that we live in a society where most of us—not just a few—have the chance to thrive.

We are reaping the benefits of basic research conducted decades ago; in the same vein, the effects of current steep budget cuts may not become apparent for decades. The invisibility of the immediate, tangible benefits is no reason to implement cuts with abandon; instead, we should tread with extra caution—because what we do now will affect generations to come.

Glossary

Antibiotics- a type of substance that is used to treat infections caused by bacteria
Artificial heart valves: a one-way valve implanted into a person's heart to replace their heart valve that is not functioning properly
Bioinformatics- a field of research that uses computational tools to analyze and interpret biological data
CDC- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC protects Americans from health threats, including chronic or acute diseases that start in the U.S. or abroad
COVID-19- Coronavirus disease 2019, a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2
DNA replication- the biological process of creating two identical copies of a DNA molecule from one original molecule
EPA- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, whose mission is to protect human health and the environment
Gene- the basic unit of heredity; a specific region of DNA that carries the instructions for making a functional product, usually a protein
Genome- the complete set of genetic information of an organism
Genomics- the study of the genome
HPV- human papillomavirus, a common virus that can infect the skin and mucous membranes
Immunization- the process of becoming resistant to a disease, typically through vaccination, or the administration of a vaccine
Insecticide- a substance or mixture designed to kill insects or prevent them from behaving undesirably or harmfully
Life expectancy- the average period that a person may expect to live
Measles- an airborne, contagious disease that is caused by the measles virus
mRNA vaccine- a type of vaccine that uses a copy of messenger RNA to produce an immune response
NCI- National Cancer Institute, an arm of the National Institutes of Health that focuses on cancer research
NIH- National Institutes of Health; a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that performs and funds medical research
NOAA- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; an American scientific and regulatory agency tasked with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep-sea exploration, and managing fishing and protection of marine mammals and endangered species in the U.S. exclusive economic zone
Opioid- a type of drug used primarily to treat moderate-to-severe pain, but also includes illegal drugs like heroin
Pharmaceutical industry- the medical industry that discovers, develops, produces, and markets pharmaceutical goods such as medications
Polymerase chain reaction- a laboratory method widely used to amplify copies of specific DNA sequences rapidly
Precision medicine- an approach of healthcare that uses a patient's individual genetic, molecular, and lifestyle information to tailor medical decisions, such as prevention, diagnosis, and treatment
Recombinant DNA technology- a type of engineering of genes that involves combining DNA from different sources to create new genetic combinations
ROI- return on investment; a financial metric that measures an investment's profitability by comparing its net gain (overall gain minus cost) against its cost
Technology commercialization- the process of bringing scientific discoveries and inventions from research institutions into the public marketplace as products, services, or processes
USDA- United States Department of Agriculture; an executive department of the U.S. federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and production, works to assure food safety, protects natural resources, fosters rural communities, and works to end hunger in the U.S. and internationally

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