Priorities of Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH) is tasked with improving the health and well-being of Americans by leading on policy, practices, and programs. To this end, OASH is committed to prioritizing gold-standard science and the mission outlined in the Make America Healthy Again Commission Report and the Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy to deliver better health outcomes.
In close coordination with other operating divisions and agencies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), OASH will advance rigorous science to address the nation’s most pressing health challenges, including the chronic disease epidemic, the mental health crisis, obesity, nutritional deficiencies, exposure to chemical and environmental toxins, and an overreliance on medical interventions. As a steward of public health programs and taxpayer funding, OASH seeks to restore scientific integrity and transparency to rebuild public trust and advance the public good.
Priorities
Please note that this is not an exhaustive list of all OASH priorities. This document is intended to clarify specific issues that may require additional guidance.
Addressing the chronic disease epidemic:
HHS is leading a science-driven response to the nation’s chronic disease epidemic, a priority of the administration, and HHS has received a mandate from the President to identify and address the root causes, especially among children. OASH’s health programs and offices play a key role in developing solutions to eliminate chronic disease, including programs that address nutrition, physical activity, and exposure to harmful chemical and environmental toxins. For example, the Office on Women’s Health is exploring opportunities to improve outcomes for women with conditions such as endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, and uterine fibroids. OASH is advancing strategies that prioritize prevention, restore scientific integrity, and promote better health outcomes for all Americans. OASH will preference programs, partnerships, grants, cooperative agreements, contracts and other funding mechanisms (together, “OASH programs and funding”) that prioritize these objectives.
Ending diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and practices across OASH’s programs:
The prior administration implemented radical DEI policies across HHS. OASH is committed to restoring merit-based opportunities and, to the extent permitted by law, removing discriminatory or otherwise illegal practices, such as providing benefits and advantages based on race or ethnicity rather than need, severity of disease, or another legitimate basis. OASH will prioritize relationships that are in compliance with this priority and applicable nondiscrimination law.
OASH has previously invested in ideologically-laden concepts like health equity— mainly focused on identifying and documenting worse health outcomes for minority populations. This has not translated into measurable improved health for minority populations, and in many cases has undermined core American values.
OASH will prioritize efforts that go beyond the use of ideologically laden concepts and focus on solution-oriented approaches. This includes actively testing, advancing, scaling, and implementing innovative evidence-based interventions and treatments that address poor health outcomes, including the root causes of Americans’ chronic disease epidemic.
Reducing overmedicalization in health care and increasing focus on optimal health and addressing underlying root causes:
OASH recognizes the pervasive overreliance on pharmaceutical and surgical interventions, which have failed to sufficiently address the chronic disease epidemic. OASH is committed to supporting programs and initiatives that will focus on the underlying causes of disease, including lifestyle modifications and other modalities that are shown to be effective in improving optimal health outcomes. OASH will prioritize OASH programs and funding that further these objectives.
Providing medically accurate and reliable information necessary for informed consent:
OASH will ensure that medically accurate materials or instructions with pharmaceutical or health-related recommendations include information on the full range of health risks, so that individuals, such as parents and guardians of minors, can make fully informed decisions. OASH is reviewing programs and initiatives to ensure that content and materials contain medically accurate information.
Ending support for gender ideology, including sex-rejecting procedures for children, and ensuring evidence-based care:
HHS released a comprehensive review of the evidence and best practices for promoting the health of children and adolescents with gender dysphoria. This review, informed by an evidence-based medicine approach, revealed serious concerns about medical interventions, such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries, that attempt to reject a child’s sex. HHS also released guidance providing for sex-based definitions rooted in scientific biological reality.In alignment with this HHS review and guidance, it is a priority of OASH to protect children from such interventions and, to the extent permitted by applicable law, including any applicable court orders, OASH will deprioritize programs that engage in these practices. It is also an OASH priority to ensure OASH programs accurately reflect science, including the biological reality that a person’s sex, as either male or female, is unchangeable and determined by objective biology. Accordingly, to the extent permitted by applicable law, including any applicable court orders, OASH will prioritize OASH programs and funding that accurately reflect the scientific biological reality of sex.
Enforcing the Hyde Amendment:
The Hyde Amendment protects taxpayer funds administered by HHS from paying for elective abortion. OASH will prioritize OASH programs and funding that respect the dignity of life and do not use taxpayer funding to promote elective abortion, consistent with applicable law.
Ensuring gold standard science, curtailing corporate capture and preventing conflicts of interest:
OASH is committed to promoting and funding programs based on gold standard science and radical transparency. The public must know that unbiased science—evaluated through a transparent process and insulated from conflicts of interest—guides the recommendations of our health agencies, and OASH-funded programs and activities carried out by OASH’s partners. OASH will deprioritize those that present conflicts of interest or otherwise compromise their objectivity in carrying out OASH-funded programs.
As part of this commitment, OASH will evaluate its existing programs, federal advisory committees, partnerships, grants, cooperatives agreements, contracts, and other funding mechanisms for any conflicts of interest (whether actual, potential or perceived) and terminate such relationships where OASH determines it appropriate and to the extent permitted by law. Open scientific discussion and inquiry is vital to the advancement of science and sound medicine, and OASH is dedicated to ensuring that scientists and medical professionals who conduct or discuss nuanced risk-benefit analyses that deviate from official guidelines do not experience retaliation in the form of professional repercussions, scrutiny from licensing boards or potential disciplinary action. OASH will prioritize OASH programs and funding that support critical discussion, encourage the development of and reporting to safety systems, and foster an open dialogue.
Ensuring OASH funds benefit eligible individuals and not illegal aliens:
Pursuant to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), OASH will review its programs and funding to ensure they are used to benefit eligible individuals and not used to encourage or support illegal immigration. OASH will prioritize programs that further the agency’s priority to end illegal immigration.
Ensuring adolescent program materials are age-appropriate:
OASH has an obligation to ensure that its programs are age appropriate for minors and do not promote harmful ideologies, such as gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology. OASH will focus on programs that do not promote material that depicts, describes, exposes or presents obscene, indecent, or sexually explicit content, including content that encourages, normalizes or promotes sexual activity for minors. OASH will prioritize OASH programs and funding that are in compliance with these priorities and applicable law.
Protecting parental rights to direct the religious upbringing of their children:
OASH is committed to ensuring parental rights in religious education and school choice. To the fullest extent of its authority under the law, OASH programs will defend the constitutional rights of parents to direct the religious upbringing of their children, including parents’ right to protect their children from exposure to content that burdens the exercise of their religious beliefs.
OASH will implement the above priorities consistent with applicable laws, regulations, court orders, and any required procedures.
