Congress’s watchdog found HHS illegally sat on $78 million in health-research money after laying off the staff who gave it out.

What happened

In April 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a reorganization and a reduction in force for the staff of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality who administered its grants. AHRQ funds research on the safety and quality of medical care. Its grant awards nearly stopped: $191,795 in April 2025 and $0 in May, against $10.1 million and $20.1 million in the same months of 2024.

AHRQ ended fiscal 2025 with more than $78 million of its $369 million appropriation unobligated. HHS did not send Congress the special message the Impoundment Control Act requires before withholding funds. A federal court in Maryland had ordered $70 million set aside pending a lawsuit.

On October 7, 2026, the Government Accountability Office ruled that HHS violated the Act. The withholding “was an impoundment subject to the ICA and not a programmatic delay,” GAO wrote.

Who benefited

The White House, which cut a research agency’s spending without asking Congress to cancel a dollar of it. Laying off the people who process grants made the money stop as surely as a rescission would have.

Who wanted something

HHS reorganized under an executive order and cut AHRQ’s grant staff. Congress had appropriated the money and never voted to cancel it.

Who lost out

Researchers and the patients their work is meant to protect: $78 million in health research Congress paid for, with your taxpayer money, was never awarded. Grants that had been favorably reviewed went unfunded, and some earlier grants lost continuing support.

Why it matters

Congress decides how money is spent; GAO’s ruling says HHS took that decision for itself. AHRQ’s fiscal 2025 money was set to expire on September 30, 2025; a court order preserved $70 million of it while a lawsuit proceeds.

Sources U.S. Government Accountability Office (primary)Bloomberg Government