OMB Director Russell Vought (heart, behind President Trump) is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit introduced by 4 state attorneys common over greater than $600 million in cuts to CDC grants introduced this week. Homeland Safety Sec. Kristi Noem and Inside Sec. Doug Burgum are additionally pictured within the Oval Workplace in June 2025.
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It was deja vu from 2025: The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention this week introduced greater than $600 million in cuts to public well being grants in California, Illinois, Colorado and Minnesota — 4 Democratic-led states.
Immediately, attorneys common within the affected states filed their lawsuit late Wednesday in a federal district courtroom in Illinois asking for the non permanent restraining order.
And the subsequent day, a federal decide blocked the Trump administration’s motion with a non permanent restraining order launched late Thursday.
In an opinion accompanying the orderU.S. District Choose Manish S. Shah wrote that despite the fact that the said motive for the cancellations was that the grants didn’t align with the priorities of the CDC, “current statements plausibly counsel that the rationale for the course (to chop the funds) is hostility to what the federal authorities calls ‘sanctuary jurisdictions’ or ‘sanctuary cities.'”
The entire course of aligns with the way in which the federal authorities has been working since President Trump’s second inauguration final yr. However the context is new. These grants weren’t all put in place by a earlier, Democratic administration. The $600 million is included within the funding invoice that handed with bipartisan assist in Congress and was signed into legislation by Trump himself simply weeks in the past.
“Integral to retaining individuals protected”
In Santa Clara County, Calif., the official discover of grant terminations got here Thursday morning. “Two giant grants that we depend on for core features in public well being to maintain individuals protected and wholesome have now been canceled,” says Dr. Sarah Rudmandirector of the county’s public well being division. “The best way these grants are utilized all through our division, they’re built-in with an enormous vary of actions we typically must do by legislation and are completely integral to retaining individuals protected.”
For example, she says, one of many grants pays for a staffer of their public well being laboratory. “That employees member is essential to our total capability to check for issues most different labs cannot take a look at for, like Ebola and anthrax and measles,” she says. “We’re not going to cease testing for these ailments right now, however our means to do it as nicely and as quick as we all the time do is instantly in danger.”
Santa Clara is only one of dozens of native well being departments focused within the grant cancellations. A joint assertion from different affected public well being departments mentioned the cuts may have an effect on all the things from HIV prevention in Chicago, firearm harm discount in Denver, and entry to reasonably priced, wholesome meals in Minneapolis.
Rudman says the sensation is “whiplash” when federal grants may be canceled instantly with little rationalization, though she says she’s relieved the decide stepped in rapidly to quickly block the cuts.
“It is completely crucial that we have now stability and predictability in our funding,” she says. “We have to plan forward and know we have now the sources to take action.”
New finances, similar sudden cuts
These newest grant cancellations comply with a sample that started final yr when the second Trump administration started. Typically these choices have been reversed after public stress or efficiently overturned in courtroom.
On this case, the attorneys common argue, the cancellations slot in with President Trump’s current threats to cease all federal funds to sure Democratic-led cities and states in retaliation for having insurance policies the president would not like.
“The Workplace of Administration and Finances (‘OMB’) then spent the final two weeks of January creating successful checklist of funds for potential focusing on in disfavored States,” reads the grievance. “In early February, OMB issued a directive (the ‘Focusing on Directive’) commanding businesses to chop funding to Plaintiff States, beginning with greater than $600 million in CDC public-health funding.”
OMB didn’t reply to NPR’s request for remark. OMB Director Russell Vought is the lead defendant within the state AGs’ lawsuit, which additionally sues the Division of Well being and Human Companies and the CDC.
On the subject of public well being division funding, “the entire cancellations that we have now seen over the previous 12 months or so do appear to have been directed from the Workplace of Administration and Finances,” says Adriane Casalottichief of presidency and public affairs on the Nationwide Affiliation of County and Metropolis Well being Officers. “It’s outdoors the norm of how federal public well being funding has gone for many years earlier than.”
Whereas the cancellations of grants in 2025 have been defined by HHS as essential to align the company’s work with the brand new administration’s priorities, Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and different Trump officers have now been in energy for a full yr. All the grants awarded since Trump’s inauguration have been permitted by his personal administration’s political appointees, Casalotti notes.
A few of the grants canceled this week have been even included in President Trump’s 2026 finances and within the bipartisan HHS finances that was handed into legislation this month and signed by Trump on Feb. 3.
“After we have a look at the general public well being infrastructure grants which were canceled in these states, Congress truly gave it a $10 million enhance of their ultimate legislation — it was supported within the Home (finances) invoice and the Senate invoice,” says Casalotti. “These funds have a ton of assist throughout the board.”
Three days’ discover
There was one thing completely different concerning the grant cancellation course of this time, notes Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., rating member of the Home Appropriations Committee.
“We included a provision within the 2026 Labor-HHS (finances) invoice of notification, to type of take care of the Congress’s energy of the purse,” she says. Due to that provision, the appropriations committees within the Home and Senate acquired an emailed checklist of the CDC grant cancellations earlier this week. The emails, obtained by NPR, embrace a protracted checklist of grant numbers, and the rationale for every reads: “Inconsistent with Company Priorities” with a hyperlink to an “About CDC” webpage.
“Look, when you’ve got notification, you’ve got obtained public outrage,” DeLauro says. She credit the three days of discover with giving focused states time to file a lawsuit so rapidly. “You realize, ailments do not care who you voted for — Republicans, Democrats, Independents — People are going to be harm by these actions,” she says.
NPR reached out to Sen. Invoice Cassidy, R-Louisiana., who chairs the HELP Committee which has oversight of HHS, and didn’t hear again by press time.
California Legal professional Common Robert Bonta predicted that the non permanent restraining order can be adopted by a victory for the states within the case.
“I’ve mentioned it earlier than, and I am going to say it once more: If President Trump and those that work for him need to cease dropping in courtroom, they need to cease breaking the legislation,” Bonta mentioned in a press launch.
