Now, those results may not come to light, since the Trump administration terminated the CDC’s drowning prevention experts this month and has proposed eliminating the program in its fiscal year 2026 budget request. “If this program saved one life, it would be far more than the total cost of the program,” says Jim Mercy, former director of the Division of Violence Prevention at the CDC, who retired in 2023. The CDC’s drowning prevention program was created in response to a spike in drowning deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the process, the CDC provided funding for free swim lessons for thousands of kids at high risk of drowning. “That was the whole point of it.”Potential impactThe CDC program employed three health scientists and had a $2 million annual budget, most of which was disbursed to partner organizations.