Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and other Democrats are urging the Trump administration to reverse a planned rescission of about $602 million in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-related federal health grants.
In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Democrats warned the cuts would undermine public health infrastructure in four states.
In the letter, first reported by The Hill, the senators said the administration had "allegedly deemed the $600 million in grant funding as 'inconsistent with agency priorities'" and argued the move would threaten "essential public health infrastructure," including testing and treatment for "lethal diseases, including HIV."
The lawmakers also wrote that no explanation had been given for why the affected grants were deemed inconsistent.
The Hill report said the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) earlier this month directed the CDC and the Department of Transportation to rescind a combined $1.5 billion in grants from California, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota.
An OMB spokesperson said at the time that the rescissions targeted "woke" healthcare grants in "states fraught with waste and mismanagement."
Court filings by the four states in a later lawsuit describe an OMB "Targeting Directive" issued between Feb. 1 and Feb. 4 and cite an OMB spokesperson confirming that the OMB directed the CDC to rescind $602 million from the four states.
The complaint also says HHS notified Congress on Feb. 9 of its intention to terminate a broad set of CDC grants in the plaintiff states.
A temporary restraining order issued Feb. 12 by U.S. District Judge Manish S. Shah barred the administration from moving forward for 14 days, which would run through about 4:45 p.m. Feb. 26, unless the judge extends it or replaces it with a different order.
The Hill's report said the targeted funds cited by the senators included $3 million to Colorado to address COVID-19 disparities among racial and ethnic minority groups, $5.2 million to a Chicago children's hospital to increase use of HIV prevention medication, and $500,000 to the University of California to evaluate state-level laws aimed at preventing sexual and intimate partner violence among gender and sexual minorities.
The senators also pointed to other recent funding actions they described as abrupt, including an attempt to terminate thousands of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration grants totaling about $2 billion.
That attempt was reversed within about a day.
Reporting by Roll Call described a rapid reversal of large Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration grant terminations after recipients received cancellation notices.
"My understanding is that there has been an intervention at the White House," said Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations ranking member Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis. "It might be a one-day issue."
An official who was not authorized to speak on the matter said the grant cancellations "are being rescinded."
The senators who signed the unpublished letter demanding that the administration reverse the rescissions included Schiff, Baldwin, and Democrats Alex Padilla of California; Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois; Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith of Minnesota; Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper of Colorado; and Patty Murray of Washington, as well as Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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