By Kalena Reynolds | Staff Writer
A recent request from the Trump Administration has put high school and youth sports in jeopardy. The administration’s 2026 fiscal budget request sent to Congress proposes eliminating funding for traumatic brain injury (TBI) research and education.
While this would detrimentally impact the medical field directly, the significance lies in addressing head injuries in sports among young athletes.
“Each year, between 1.6 and 3.8 million concussions occur in the United States as a result of sports or recreational activities,” according to an article published by the National Library of Medicine. “Concussion is a type of mild traumatic brain injury.”
The proposed budget was released on Friday and includes funding cuts for traumatic brain injury research within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This would mean withdrawing the $8.25 million that was previously funding TBI research within the CDC and public education on the dangers of concussions. In addition to the money going directly to TBI research, the administration is also considering cutting $3.59 billion for CDC funding.
While this would initially impact high school and youth sports, the repercussions of this change would also cause immense problems for college athletics.
Here’s the good news: although Trump proposed this, Congress still has to approve the final budget; however, the fact that this is being considered is highly concerning. Concussions and head trauma are a considerable factor affecting all of athletics, and jeopardizing funding for that is putting young adults and youth at risk.
To further deepen the issue, cutting funding would also affect concussion-prevention programs as well as employees working in the area of head trauma research at the CDC.
Patients with brain trauma often require ongoing treatment, and eliminating funding would mean stopping services that those patients need to continue functioning in life and facilitate recovery.
For people who have experienced brain injuries, there is often no permanent solution, and this request would mean leaving someone with a lifetime problem with no help.
A concussion-prevention program called “Heads Up” is already having a significant impact. The program was created for athletic trainers, youth and high school coaches and other sports officials. The CDC workers who ran the program were put on leave, leaving the forty-five states that utilized the program empty-handed.
“A pause in federal funding would disrupt many brain injury programs throughout the country and would directly impact brain injury survivors and the healthcare professionals providing treatment and support,” Rick Willis, president and CEO of BIAA, said. “Survivors of brain injury face so many obstacles in their day-to-day life, and many require ongoing support and services. Suddenly stopping programs that many of them rely on is inexcusable, especially with no warning.”
Ultimately, this request comes with a multitude of problems that would create a domino effect of chaos for both government workers and people affected by head injuries. Research would be significantly hindered, and athletic programs across the country would suffer immensely due to the lack of resources and information the cut would cause.
