The Biden administration is facing mounting criticism following a report detailing the dismantling of federal health advisory committees under the Trump administration, a move experts say is undermining public health and biomedical research. The report, released by Public Citizen, identifies widespread terminations and disruptions of panels advising agencies including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Among the terminated advisory committees was the NIH Center for Scientific Review Advisory Council, established in 1988, which advised NIH leaders on research fund allocation. Beyond the NIH, the CDC saw nine advisory committees terminated, while four were terminated at the FDA. These included panels focused on critical areas such as childhood vaccines, heritable diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, health equity, healthcare infection control, rural health, novel technology, long COVID, and the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF).
The disruption extended beyond outright terminations. The report highlights concerns over appointments to the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC). In January, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) appointed 21 new members to the IACC, with at least eight reportedly subscribing to the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism. This prompted autism researchers and advocates to establish a competing, independent advisory committee to counter potential misinformation emanating from the federal panel.
At the FDA, terminated advisory committees specialized in areas like arthritis, medical imaging drugs, pharmaceutical sciences, and patient engagement. The breadth of these terminations signals a systematic effort to diminish the role of independent experts in shaping federal health policy, according to the Public Citizen report.
“All Americans, including patients, lawmakers, and scientists, have every right to be incensed at the damage Trump has done to federal health advisory committees,” said Michael Abrams, a senior health researcher at Public Citizen and author of the report. “Trump’s actions are undermining biomedical research, long-standing processes for the approval of new drugs and medical devices, and federal vaccine policy. Silencing and biasing external experts makes HHS vulnerable to stagnation and corruption that erodes the health of all Americans.”
The changes to the ACIP, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, were noted in a recent report indicating the committee’s meeting was rescheduled for mid-March after HHS missed deadlines. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) withdrew from the ACIP, further highlighting the instability within the committee structure.
The KFF report on HHS Public Health Policy Actions Under the Trump Administration 2025-2026 details a broader pattern of policy shifts, but does not offer specific details on the long-term impact of the advisory committee changes. As of Friday, March 20, 2026, HHS has not issued a statement addressing the Public Citizen report or outlining a plan to rebuild the dismantled advisory infrastructure.
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