The Trump administration’s fiscal year 2026 budget request, released this week, has raised alarms across the healthcare community. It would eliminate the biggest federal funding source for traumatic brain injury (TBI) research and education—a proposal that deserves major red flags. Such an action would turn back the clock on decades of progress on our understanding of traumatic brain injuries. The health effects of these injuries can be felt for years, if not decades.
Dr. Owen Perlman, a brain injury expert and advocate, emphasized the chilling effects of these cuts. He sits on the board of the Brain Injury Association of America. He explained that the proposed budget cuts would “roll back decades of progress” in TBI research and awareness. Unintentional TBI are among the leading causes of disability and death worldwide, with traumatic implications including lasting negative impacts on an individual’s physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral health.
In a 2018 survey, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that the numbers are terrifying. Unexpectedly, it discovered that 12% of American adults felt that they had suffered a head injury in the last year. This roughly illustrates the limited scope of TBIs and further emphasizes the need for continued research and education initiatives. The CDC’s “Heads Up” program has educated more than 10 million people since launching its free, interactive, online training. It serves as an important awareness-raising tool for TBIs, particularly for coaches and athletes.
While the “Heads Up” initiative has been extremely successful, its future is now in jeopardy with the advent of proposed budget cuts. Dr. Perlman said what this means for the hundreds of thousands of coaches that will need to participate in this training.
“We’re really worried about the hundreds of thousands of coaches who have to take this training.” – CDC official
Dr. Fred Rivara, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington, said he was “shocked” to see that provision. He stressed that the cancellations take huge resources away from the critical work of increasing public awareness of traumatic brain injuries. He stated that the loss of funding is “a perfect example of how this change in, or devastation of, funding at the CDC is impacting people.”
On April 23, the National Academy of Sciences was directed to terminate and stop work on two congressionally mandated workshops aimed at furthering federal action on TBI. Of these workshops, one focused on the dangers of cumulative head impacts in children. This cancellation deepens fear about the future of TBI research. It endangers public health education efforts designed to encourage safer practices in youth sports and other recreational activities.
Dr. Christine Baugh, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado’s School of Medicine, is currently studying how parents make decisions regarding their children’s participation in contact sports. In collaboration with the Brain Injury Association, she is testing if awareness campaigns regarding brain injury lead to such decisions. The lack of clarity about funding is very concerning for her work.
“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.” – Christine Baugh
As advocates, we recognize that these proposed budget cuts have real world impacts that extend far beyond funding. These cuts endanger decades of progress in researching TBIs and raising awareness about their dangers. One of the now-laid-off CDC employees voiced their concerns about the crisis. They pointed out that while the public will not experience short-term impacts, damage in the long-term would be most dire.
Today, forty-five states are working with CDC to implement “Heads Up.” Public health advocates have recently raised concerns about how these recent cuts will affect public health initiatives that protect people from brain injuries.
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