Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Wednesday evening in an attempt to block more than $600 million in public health funding cuts in Democrat-led states.
The attorneys general of four Democrat-led states filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to block more than $600 million in public funding cuts for various diversity, equity, and inclusion public health programs, including HIV prevention.
The suit, filed Wednesday evening, follows an announcement from Raoul and Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) late Wednesday evening that they were seeking a restraining order against the Trump administration for rescinding grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allocated to Illinois, California, Colorado, and Minnesota for various measures related to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in public health.
Raoul said in an X video about the lawsuit posted Wednesday evening that public health program cuts for his state would exceed $100 million and would have “a devastating impact on basic public health infrastructure in Illinois.”
Among the reported cuts is $7 million for the city of Chicago to study minority populations disproportionately affected by sexually transmitted diseases, as well as $5.2 million for the Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago to increase HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis among black women.
Raoul said the CDC cuts would also prevent Illinois from operating HIV monitoring and detection systems aimed at populations most at risk for contracting the disease.
“Without that system, Illinois would have no reliable way of tracking the spread of HIV within the state,” Raoul said. “Our capacity to detect and respond to HIV outbreaks would simply collapse.”
Raoul also said the motivation for the cuts is “part of the president’s ongoing crusade to force states to implement his immigration and other policies.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a press statement about the lawsuit that “all Americans should be outraged” about the cuts.
California is expected to lose $130 million from its Public Health Infrastructure Block Grant, which is used to fund local health departments, infectious disease surveillance, pharmacy capacity, and food security, according to the press release.
Other grants on the chopping block include $6 million for Los Angeles County to address health inequities and $1.1 million from Los Angeles’s HIV surveillance project. Roughly another $2.5 million is being cut from LGBT health resources.
“President Trump is resorting to a familiar playbook,” Bonta said. “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.”
An HHS spokesperson told the Washington Examiner earlier this week, “These grants are being terminated because they do not reflect agency priorities.”
The Office of Management and Budget and the White House did not return multiple requests for more information about the specific grants being terminated.
A spokesperson for Pritzker’s office told the Washington Examiner, before the lawsuit was filed, that the governor’s office was not notified of the cuts before they were announced on social media and in the press.
“Time and time again, the Trump Administration has attempted to politicize and punish certain states President Trump does not like,” the governor’s spokesperson said. “It’s wrong and often illegal, so Illinois will always fight for the resources and services our taxpayers are owed.”
