Four Democratic-led states that have become frequent targets of President Donald Trump sued Wednesday to try to block his administration from cutting off hundreds of millions in public health grants.
The Department of Health and Human Services told Congress on Monday that it planned to withhold about $600 million in grant funding allocated to the four states: California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota. Their attorneys general argue the cuts are backlash for the states’ opposition to Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The lawsuit says the cuts violate the Constitution by imposing retroactive conditions on funding and asks a federal court in Illinois to block them from taking effect.
Some grants could be terminated as soon as Thursday, and others in the coming weeks, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said.
Health officials have said the grants — several focused on LGBTQ+ people and communities of color — are “inconsistent with agency priorities” as the Trump administration has shifted away from supporting programs for specific populations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised its priorities in September, dubbing health equity an “ideologically-laden” concept that “has undermined core American values.”
Health department officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.
The administration also plans to pull hundreds of millions in transportation funding from the same four states.
Courts have temporarily blocked similar efforts by the administration to restrict federal funds.
A judge last week ruled that, for now, the administration cannot cut off billions in child care subsidies and other social service programs for lower-income people in those four states plus New York.
Several of the largest planned health funding cuts are to programs aimed at preventing the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections in Chicago and Los Angeles, with a focus on adolescents, ethnic minorities and gay men.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called the funding cuts “a slap in the face” to public health leaders who have stepped up as the Trump administration “takes a sledgehammer to public health infrastructure.”
The administration is also targeting a $7.2 million grant for the Chicago-based American Medical Association, noting its support for gender-affirming care for minors, which a Trump executive order opposes.
Other grants help the states track disease outbreaks and collect public health data that the CDC also uses.
California faces the largest share of the planned cuts, which Attorney General Rob Bonta said will “irreparably harm” public health in the state.
“President Trump is resorting to a familiar playbook. He is using federal funding to compel states and jurisdictions to follow his agenda,” Bonta said. “Those efforts have all previously failed, and we expect that to happen once again.”
