The Trump administration intends to minimize costs by combining two identical HIV/AIDS prevention programs managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an administration official told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. The reduction will target administrative expenses and DEI-related expenditures.
The tentative proposal, which is still “a concept of a plan,” is to combine them into one program under HRSA to streamline efficiency – in line with the administration’s downsizing of the federal government agenda – because having two separate programs performing similar functions makes no sense, according to the official.
“One of those things is still very preliminary, but obviously, you don’t need two $1 billion budgets for this, with $1 billion going to the CDC and $1 billion going to HRSA,” said the government employee. “Some of that will go toward paying the administrative overhead costs and that sort of thing.”
Both the CDC and the HRSA are part of the Department of Health and Human Services, which is led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“If this goes through, that will be more definitive… like with examining DEI spending with these two programs,” a government official said. In one of his early executive orders titled “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing,” the Trump administration has already taken steps to reduce government support for DEI programs and activities.
While the CDC has a section devoted to HIV and other infectious disease prevention, HRSA also manages the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP), which offers medical treatment to low-income HIV patients.
During his first term, in 2019, Trump introduced the Ending the HIV Epidemic project, which aims to reduce HIV infections by 75% by 2025 and 90% by 2030. The effort is run by the CDC.
The idea, which is still being worked on this week, comes amid major government shake-ups across numerous federal sectors under Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with hundreds of employees let off in recent weeks.
