{"id":13534,"date":"2026-02-12T11:58:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-joins-multistate-lawsuit-suing-trump-administration-for-cutting-600m-in-public-health-funding\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:31:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:31:24","slug":"colorado-joins-multistate-lawsuit-suing-trump-administration-for-cutting-600m-in-public-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-joins-multistate-lawsuit-suing-trump-administration-for-cutting-600m-in-public-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado joins multistate lawsuit suing Trump administration for cutting $600M in public health funding"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment labs, Feb. 14, 2022. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Attorneys general from those states sued the Trump administration over the White House Office of Management and Budget\u2019s directive to cut the money based on policy disagreements with those states, according to a news release from the attorney general\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the administration said the states were being targeted for \u201cwaste and mismanagement\u201d of taxpayer funds.<\/p>\n

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser called the move \u201cvindictive and lawless\u201d in an interview Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is consistent with some prior actions where this administration said, \u2018We\u2019re gonna stop providing money for blue states because there\u2019s something about what you\u2019re doing that we don\u2019t like,\u2019\u201d Weiser said. \u201cThis is un-American.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThere\u2019s no legal basis for this money to be withheld. It\u2019s harmful, it threatens our health,\u201d Weiser said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why we\u2019re going to court really quickly to make sure that we\u2019re getting these funds and this administration has to follow the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The cuts would also force states to lay off hundreds of trained public health professionals, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cbecause it is arbitrary and capricious and exceeds the agencies\u2019 statutory authority.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

That includes $371,000 from the Colorado Health Network Inc. to focus on \u201cengaging Latino and African American\u201d men who have sex with men.<\/p>\n

The states asked the court to issue a temporary restraining order to stop the cuts.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit is filed in the U.S. District Court Northern District of Illinois, Eastern District.<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment labs, Feb. 14, 2022. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News)cca 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,1137,896,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-donald-trump","tag-government","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13534"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19026,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13534\/revisions\/19026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13534"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}