Republicans Use Funding Bill to Dismantle Our Health Care System and Attack Public Education

**NEW FACT SHEET** House Republicans’ Funding Bill Includes Extreme Abortion-Related Provisions and Attacks Women’s Health

**STATE-BY-STATE DATA** House Republicans’ Goal: Fire 72,000 Teachers

WASHINGTON — During today’s House Appropriations Committee markup of the 2026 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies funding bill, Democrats fought against Republicans’ extreme bill that assaults public health, slashes medical research, eliminates funding for reproductive health, and eviscerates education and job training.

This bill:

• Surrenders to ongoing health crises by cutting funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), including major cuts to State and local health departments, tobacco prevention programs, HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, substance use prevention and treatment, and mental health services.
• Slashes research into lifesaving cures by cutting funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—including the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)—and eliminating funding for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
• Harms women’s health by cutting programs that support maternal and child health, eliminating programs that provide access to health services and contraception, and adding numerous partisan and poison pill riders related to abortion and reproductive health.
• Decimates support for children in K-12 elementary schools by slashing funding for low-income students, eliminating funding for teacher training, and eliminating funding for community schools.
• Abandons college students and low-income workers trying to improve their lives through postsecondary education by slashing funding for need-based financial aid and eliminating funding for youth job training, adult job training, and adult education.

Appropriations Committee and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) said:

“The Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies funding bill impacts every aspect of Americans’ lives in profound ways. Instead of accepting this responsibility and using it to make life better for the middle class, the working class, and vulnerable Americans, Republicans are abandoning them. Following President Trump’s lead, House Republicans are making health care less affordable and slashing research into lifesaving cures. Republicans just passed a bill to cut funding for the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They are slashing funding for State and local health departments, substance use prevention and treatment, and mental health services, and eliminating funding for tobacco prevention and HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.

“House Republicans are once again proposing eliminating funding for Title X Family planning and the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program and blocking funding for access to abortion and reproductive health services. 

“They are continuing their full-scale attempt to eliminate public education, decimating support for children in K-12 elementary schools and threatening the future of an entire generation. Instead of focusing on helping Americans deal with the high cost of living, this bill would hurt hardworking Americans trying to improve their lives through higher education or job training.

“Even if students reach their goals and find a good job, they will find no support from House Republicans in the workplace. This bill slashes worker wage, health, and safety protections.

“It’s time for Republicans to abandon their pursuit of extreme, partisan funding bills that have no chance of becoming law and to say: enough. Stop supporting anti-vaccine lies. Stop cutting Medicaid. Stop destroying public education. Stop destroying our public health systems and our public school systems.”

Congresswoman DeLauro’s full remarks are here.

During today’s markup, Democrats offered nearly 50 amendments and successfully:

• Prohibited the Social Security Administration from reducing phone service or closing field offices.
• Blocked the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from implementing the Medicare Prior Authorization pilot program.
• Prevented funding freezes to Hispanic-Serving Institutions or GEAR UP.
• Limited the Department of Labor’s ability to close Job Corps sites.
• Extended continuing medical education grant programs.

Democrats fought to:

• Reverse RFK Jr.’s recent extreme, deadly actions by prohibiting HHS from removing a vaccine from the Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule if the vaccine was included on the vaccine schedule on June 8, 2025.
• Ensure Americans do not need to pay out-of-pocket for critical vaccines if the vaccine was included on the vaccine schedule on May 26, 2025.
• Prevent Republicans from firing teachers by restoring funding for the Department of Education Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies.
• Restore advance funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
• Prevent the politicization of the scientific process, including NIH grant cancellations and the loss of scientists.
• Restore funding for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs.
• Strike anti-reproductive health poison bill riders.
• Restore cuts to substance use prevention and treatment programs.
• Reinstate need-based financial aid to make it easier for students to access a college education.

House Republicans ultimately rejected these efforts, siding with billionaires and big corporations over the middle class, the working class, and vulnerable Americans. 

A summary of the bill is here. A fact sheet is here. 

The text of the bill, before the adoption of amendments in full committee, is here. The bill report, before the adoption of amendments in full Committee, is here.

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