Four states sue Trump administration over cuts to public health funding

Four Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit on Wednesday that ​seeks to block the ​Trump administration from terminating $600 million in public health funding.

In a ​complaint filed in federal court in Chicago, the states - California, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota - said they were being unlawfully subjected to "devastating funding cuts to basic public health infrastructure ‌based on ⁠political animus ⁠and disagreements about unrelated topics such as federal immigration enforcement."

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department ​of Health and Human Services said on Monday that the grants are being terminated because ​they do not reflect the agency's priorities. HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.


The grant funding, administered ​through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ⁠is used ‌to monitor health threats, respond to disease outbreaks, and ​plan for ​public health emergencies. The affected programs include those supporting HIV ⁠prevention and surveillance.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly attempted ​to withhold funding from Democratic-led states, though the cuts have ​been blocked by lower court judges.

A judge last month temporarily blocked the Trump administration from freezing access by five Democratic-led states to more than $10 billion of federal funds for childcare and family assistance based on what the administration said were concerns about fraud.

Trump last month warned so-called "sanctuary ‌cities or states" that he would begin halting funding in February, saying their policies foment "fraud and crime and all of ​the other problems ​that come."

The New ⁠York Post first reported last week that Trump's budget office had instructed the Department of Transportation and the CDC to claw back more than $1.5 billion ​from a group of Democratic-led states.

"President Trump is resorting to a familiar playbook," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. "He is using federal funding to compel states and jurisdictions to follow his agenda. Those efforts have all previously failed, and we expect that to happen once again."