Colorado joins multistate lawsuit suing Trump administration for cutting $600M in public health funding

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment will lose more than $22 million already awarded, along with more than $4 million in future funding, according to court documents.

Earlier this week, it was reported that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services planned to cut funding for programs in Colorado, as well as California, Illinois and Minnesota. All four states are governed by Democrats.

Attorneys general from those states sued the Trump administration over the White House Office of Management and Budget’s directive to cut the money based on policy disagreements with those states, according to a news release from the attorney general’s office.

A spokesperson for the administration said the states were being targeted for “waste and mismanagement” of taxpayer funds.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser called the move “vindictive and lawless” in an interview Thursday.

“This is consistent with some prior actions where this administration said, ‘We’re gonna stop providing money for blue states because there’s something about what you’re doing that we don’t like,’” Weiser said. “This is un-American.”

The Trump administration has repeatedly targeted Colorado with funding cuts, including for things like child care, food aid, a clean water project in southeastern Colorado, atmospheric research, and major fire and flood disaster relief.

The state even has a website featuring an ongoing tally, with billions of dollars in federal cuts categorized as at risk, canceled and reinstated.

“There’s no legal basis for this money to be withheld. It’s harmful, it threatens our health,” Weiser said. “And that’s why we’re going to court really quickly to make sure that we’re getting these funds and this administration has to follow the law.”

The attorneys general explained grant funding could be shut off as soon as Thursday. The funding is critical for states to track disease outbreaks, maintain and improve their data systems, and collect basic public health data. That data is shared with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for national statistics.

The cuts would also force states to lay off hundreds of trained public health professionals, according to the lawsuit.

On Monday, the release said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services notified Congress of its plan to terminate CDC grant funding to the four states. It did not provide specific reasons for the move.

In their complaint, the four-state coalition said the decision telling agencies to cut funding, along with its implementation, violates the U.S. Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act “because it is arbitrary and capricious and exceeds the agencies’ statutory authority.”

The largest grant targeted, the release said, is the Public Health Infrastructure Block Grant. It operates in all 50 states and funds both critical short-term infrastructure, workforce needs and long-lasting strategic investment.

Other funds targeted include the STD Prevention and Control for Health Departments grant, the National HIV Behavioral Survey grant, and the STI Surveillance Network grant.

The rescinded money included large grants in the four states, including for H.I.V. prevention therapy among Black women and support for children undergoing gender transitions in Illinois, and money to reduce social isolation among older LGBTQ adults in California, the New York Times reported. It said about two dozen grants were aimed at curbing H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted infections.

That includes $371,000 from the Colorado Health Network Inc. to focus on “engaging Latino and African American” men who have sex with men.

The states asked the court to issue a temporary restraining order to stop the cuts.

The lawsuit is filed in the U.S. District Court Northern District of Illinois, Eastern District.

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