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Food & Nutrition
White House Releases FY 2026 Discretionary Budget Requests
HHS released the Department’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and Indian Health Service (IHS) FY 2026 Budget Requests. These publications follow the release of President Trump’s FY 2026 Discretionary Budget Request published last month. Under the budget request, HHS is proposing $94.7 billion in discretionary funding to support the Administration's efforts to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA). At FDA, the budget provides $6.8 billion, an overall decrease of $271 million compared to the FY 2025 enacted level, includes $234.6 million to support MAHA activities, and provides a $65.5 million increase in funds to the Human Foods Program. USDA also released its FY 2026 Budget Request, proposing $23 billion in discretionary funding, an overall decrease of $6.7 billion compared to the FY 2025 enacted level, and decreases in funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program (WIC) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This week, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies also convened to mark up the Ag-FDA funding bill. The full House Appropriations Committee is expected to consider the bill next week.
FDA Launches Agency-Wide AI Tool
FDA launched Elsa, a generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool, designed to help modernize agency functions and leverage AI capabilities across the Department. FDA intends to scale the new AI tool agency-wide by June 30, 2025 and is using Elsa to accelerate clinical protocol reviews, shorten the time needed for scientific evaluations, and identify high-priority inspection targets. More specifically, the new AI tool is designed to assist with reading, writing, and summarizing adverse events to support safety profile assessments, perform faster label comparisons, and generate code to help develop databases for nonclinical applications. As the tool matures, FDA plans to integrate more AI in different processes, such as data processing and generative AI functions.
On a related note, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued a request for information (RFI) to invite public comment on themes, pillars, and specific actions that should shape the agency’s forthcoming NIH AI Strategic Plan and its early one-year action plan. The comment period deadline is July 15, 2025.
Tufts Food is Medicine Institute to Host 2025 Food is Medicine National Summit
Tufts University's Food is Medicine Institute is hosting its third annual Food is Medicine National Summit on October 8-9, 2025. The 2025 Summit will explore the implementation, effectiveness, and equity of Food is Medicine (FIM) approaches. The event will address several key themes throughout the Summit, including discussions on the topic of ultra-processed foods and additives. Other themes include discussions on the influence of GLP-1 drugs on treatment approaches and the role of nutrition-based interventions, what makes FIM interventions work well in real-world healthcare and community settings, and FIM’s impact on national policy in a shifting policy landscape, among others.
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