Democratic-led states sue Trump administration over health funding cuts

Four Democratic-led states that were targeted by more than $600 million in Trump administration funding rescissions are suing to have their public health grants restored.

Last week, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to rescind more than $1.5 billion in public health and transportation funding from Colorado, Illinois, California and Minnesota. Included in these rescissions were $602 million in public health grants.

An OMB spokesperson said the rescissions were targeting “states fraught with waste and mismanagement.”

Among the grants that were rescinded were those meant to address COVID-19 disparities among minorities, boost HIV PrEP use among cisgender Black women and tamp down on intimate partner violence at the state level.

In their lawsuit filed on Wednesday, the affected states argued these actions were motivated by “arbitrary political animus.”

“This action is lawless. It violates the Administrative Procedure Act’s requirement of reasoned decisionmaking, and it exceeds the agencies’ statutory authority. Even more fundamentally, it violates basic tenets of our constitutional order: the Tenth Amendment, the Separation of Powers, and the Spending Clause,” the suit stated.

The states argued the rescissions were tied to an executive order issued by President Trump last April that directed the Attorney General and the Department of Homeland Security to publish a list of “sanctuary jurisdictions,” areas that the administration claims “obstruct the enforcement of Federal immigration laws.”

All the states targeted by the rescissions were included on the subsequent list and they further noted there are currently mass protests in California, Illinois and Minnesota against federal immigration operations.

The plaintiffs are asking that a federal judge declare the rescissions unlawful and undo them.

When asked to comment on the lawsuit, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services reiterated, “These grants are being terminated because they do not reflect agency priorities.”