Trump signs bipartisan spending bill boosting dental research as broader public-health cuts loom

U.S. President Donald Trump has signed a $1.2-trillion bipartisan federal spending bill that increases funding for dental research, oral-health programs and workforce development, even as the administration signals cutbacks in other areas of public-health spending.

The fiscal 2026 funding package, approved by both chambers of Congress and signed Feb. 3, ends a partial government shutdown. It provides full-year funding for the Department of Health and Human Services and extends funding for the Department of Homeland Security through mid-February, according to the American Dental Association.

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Targeted increases for dentistry

The legislation largely rejects proposed reductions to health spending and delivers targeted increases for dentistry. Most notably, funding for the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research rises by $5 million, bringing its total budget to $525 million. The institute supports research spanning oral-disease prevention, craniofacial disorders and emerging links between oral and systemic health.

Additional increases include $1 million for Health Resources and Services Administration oral-health workforce programs, raising total funding to $43 million, and $1 million for oral-health activities at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for a total of $21 million. Military dental research funding through the Department of Defense increases by $2 million to $12 million.

The bill also allocates more than $50 million in community project funding to expand dental infrastructure and services in more than 15 states. Funding extensions are provided for programs that support dental care delivery in underserved areas, including the National Health Service Corps, Teaching Health Centers and Community Health Centers.

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$600M in public-health cuts

The targeted dental investments come as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is expected to cut about $600 million in public-health grants to several states, including California, Minnesota, Illinois and Colorado, according to media reports. An HHS spokesperson said the grants are being terminated because they do not reflect current agency priorities.

HHS last month also briefly paused roughly $5 billion in public-health infrastructure grants tied to pandemic-era funding before reversing the decision hours later.

At the National Institutes of Health, the spending bill protects the existing indirect-cost structure for research grants and limits forward funding to preserve support for new, high-quality awards — measures welcomed by dental and biomedical researchers concerned about long-term research stability.