The Trump administration is burying science and health care in paperwork

September 1, 2026 - 15:36

Brandon Marshall and Abdullah Shihipar argue that the current administration has quietly transformed federal paperwork into a primary tool for dismantling public health and scientific research. While the public focuses on high-profile policy battles, the real damage is happening through forms, review boards, and administrative delays.

The strategy is simple: make it so hard to do the work that the work stops. Researchers seeking federal grants now face endless layers of approval. Clinicians dealing with Medicaid or Medicare are buried in new documentation requirements. Every step forward requires a mountain of filings, and every filing can be rejected for the smallest technicality.

This is not just inefficiency. It is a deliberate method of control. By drowning agencies in red tape, the administration can slow down or stop research it does not like, without ever having to openly censor it. Studies on gun violence, environmental health, and reproductive care have been particularly targeted. The paperwork does not just delay the science. It discourages scientists from even trying.

The same tactic is hitting health care delivery. Doctors and nurses are spending more time on compliance than on patients. Small clinics, especially in rural areas, are closing because they cannot afford the administrative staff needed to keep up. The result is a quieter, slower crisis. No dramatic press conferences, just a steady erosion of the country's ability to know the truth and treat the sick.

The authors call this the paperwork administration because that is what defines it. Not big speeches, not bold policy. Just a thousand small cuts, each one signed, stamped, and filed.