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Proposed budget cuts by the Trump administration at the Department of Health and Human Services are getting pushback from university researchers who say slashing the budget will hurt Americans’ health.
Hundreds of protesters on Tuesday directed their anger and frustration at President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the new Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., while outside the HHS building on Capitol Hill.
Many held signs that said, “Hands Off NIH, CDC and HHS,” and “Science not Billionaires Make America Great.”
The rally was organized by the Labor for Higher Education Coalition, which represents thousands of higher education workers nationwide. According to organizers, the American Association of University Professors, American Federation of Teachers and United Auto Workers Union are some of the members of the Labor for Higher Education Coalition.
Rutgers University scientist Ann Morris said she works on molecular research and has been at the New Jersey university for more than 20 years, studying a variety of medically related issues. She fears what could be coming next.
“Cuts would be deadly, yes, because they would be cutting our infrastructure,” she said. “Basically, we’d have the money to do the research, but nowhere to do it.”
Morris said some of the federal money her department received has been essential when it comes to helping people with cancer live longer, more productive lives and make cancer a chronic medical disease, rather than a killer.
In his first day on the job, RFK Jr. said “nothing is off limits” when it comes to restructuring the agency.
“Those who are unwilling to embrace those kinds of ideas can retire,” Morris said.
Like many federal agencies, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is also cutting staff. Reductions in force have already been announced at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes for Health.
“They are hurting people in this building,” protester Frederick Ingraham said.
Demonstrator Lucy Millerand said some universities that are anticipating less federal money are beginning to cut staff: “I am pretty appalled at how this new administration is trying to trash research and trash higher education.”
The leader of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, said this protest is the first of many and they plan to take their message to all 435 congressional districts, putting as much pressure as possible on members of Congress, especially Republicans.
“How did we get to this situation that, all of a sudden, a president of the United States has taken a hatchet to this building?” Weingarten asked the crowd.
Another researcher said she’d rather be in a lab doing clinical work, instead of being in D.C. protesting and fighting to keep her job.
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