CCHF backs Trump’s AHRQ cuts, urges agency shutdown

Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom asked President Donald Trump to keep cutting funding for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and press Congress to eliminate the agency. The group argues AHRQ still influences medical practice through federal treatment protocols and should be shut down entirely.

Why it matters: - CCHF is pressing the Trump administration to go beyond grant cuts and push for the end of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. - The group says AHRQ still shapes doctor decision-making through federal quality metrics and treatment protocols. - CCHF argues shutting down AHRQ would protect patients and medical ethics.

What happened: - Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom sent a letter Monday to President Donald Trump thanking his administration for cutting AHRQ grant funding. - The letter asks Trump to call on Congress to shut down AHRQ. - CCHF President and Co-Founder Twila Brase said Republicans should have eliminated the agency in 1995.

The details: - Congress created AHRQ’s predecessor, the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, in 1989. - AHCPR issued 19 clinical practice guidelines from 1992 to 1996. - One low back pain guideline triggered backlash from the health care industry. - The House Budget Committee accused AHCPR of serving an advocacy role for President Bill Clinton’s health care plan and recommended ending its funding in 1995. - Congress kept the agency alive and renamed it the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in 1999. - AHRQ told researchers on July 15 that it would not issue the next annual installments of certain multi-year grants. - At least 104 grants were affected. - KFF Health News reported that AHRQ halted about $100 million in grant commitments this year, based on an AcademyHealth tabulation. - CCHF said the National Guideline Clearinghouse lost funding in 2018. - AHRQ later announced funding in 2023 for a “reimagined” National Guideline Clearinghouse. - CCHF’s letter includes a link to what the group calls the agency’s controversial history. - The letter asks Trump to urge Congress to repeal Title 42, Section 299 of the U.S. Code, the law that authorizes AHRQ. - Media inquiries for Twila Brase are directed to Alexandra de Scheel at media@cchfreedom.org. - CCHF also listed social media accounts on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and X.

Between the lines: - The fight is not just about grants. It is about whether a federal research agency should influence clinical practice at all. - CCHF’s message ties current funding cuts to a larger push to erase AHRQ’s legal foundation. - Brase said the agency can be constrained by executive action, but only Congress can abolish it.

What's next: - CCHF wants Trump to ask Congress to repeal the statute that created AHRQ. - The group is also urging the administration to eliminate clearinghouse funding and close the AHRQ website. - Any full shutdown would require congressional action.

The bottom line: - CCHF is using Trump’s AHRQ grant cuts as leverage for a broader campaign to dismantle the agency entirely.