California, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota aren't happy about losing $600 million in healthcare funding, and they're taking the Trump administration to court over it. The four states filed a federal lawsuit in Chicago on Wednesday, arguing that the cuts are both unlawful and driven by political disputes that have nothing to do with public health.
According to the lawsuit, the administration is using healthcare funding as leverage in disagreements over issues like federal immigration enforcement. The money in question comes from CDC-administered grants that support some fairly essential public health functions: monitoring health threats, responding to disease outbreaks, and planning for emergencies. These programs also include HIV prevention and surveillance efforts.
The New York Times reported earlier this week that the administration justified the $600 million reduction by calling the grants "inconsistent with agency priorities." The cuts hit state and local public health programs as well as some non-governmental organizations. A list of affected funding was shared with congressional committees on Monday.
The Department of Health and Human Services hasn't commented on the lawsuit yet.
A Pattern of Funding Disputes
This isn't the first time the administration has targeted Democratic-led states with funding cuts. Back in January, the Trump administration moved to freeze over $10 billion in funding for social services and child care in five states, citing concerns about fraudulent payments to non-citizens. That freeze affected the Child Care Development Fund, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Social Services Block Grant programs. A lower court temporarily blocked that order.
More recently, following protests involving law enforcement officials in the Minneapolis area, Trump called on Congress to pass legislation to "end" sanctuary cities, arguing that stricter enforcement and cooperation are necessary to improve public safety and reduce crime.
Then in December, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced plans to withhold SNAP funding from California, New York, Minnesota, and other Democratic-led states that refused to provide identifying information on beneficiaries, including immigration status. Rollins said the data, which was requested last February, was needed to detect fraud. She noted that 29 Republican-led states complied with the request, while Democratic-run states did not.
