Trump team delays health funding with new screening process that uses AI to check for words like 'culture' and 'gender' [View all]
Source: The Independent
Monday 22 June 2026 18:07 EDT
Billions of dollars in grant funding from the Department of Health and Human Services have been reportedly delayed by new approval requirements. HHS funding opportunities are being held up by a new multi-step approval process, which critics have argued places strain on important health programs that rely on federal funds, according to a joint report by Spotlight PA and NOTUS.
“If we start to see these delays extended because of these approvals, things will have to stop,” Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, told the outlets.
Funding opportunities are now required to pass an AI screening process — which will flag words like “culture,” “gender,” and “transgender” — and receive multiple sign-offs, including from an HHS assistant secretary, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s office and the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, the report said.
Democratic Senator Patty Murray told NOTUS the agency is “undermining America’s edge in research, holding up funding for front-line responders, and denying resources and services to communities because of politics.” “Putting a Trump-appointed goon in front of every basic grant that is otherwise ready to go is nothing short of self-sabotage,” she added.
Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-hhs-funding-delays-ai-screening-b3000812.html
Full headline - Trump team delays health funding with new screening process that uses AI to check for words like ‘culture’ and ‘gender’: report
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