Judge Prevents Trump Administration From Cutting $600 Million in Health Grants

Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) informed Congress that it intended to withhold approximately $600 million in grant funding from four states: California, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota, Hanna Schoenbaum reported for AP News. The respective states sued on Wednesday to try to block the planned funding. Their attorneys general claimed the cuts are a reaction to these states’ opposition to Trump’s immigration policies, Schoenbaum wrote. The next day, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration's action with a temporary restraining order released late Thursday, NPR’s Selena Simmons-Duffin reported.

“These grants were not all put in place by a previous Democratic administration. The $600 million is included in the funding bill that passed with bipartisan support in Congress and was signed into law by Trump himself just weeks ago,” Simmons-Duffin wrote.

“The court finds that plaintiffs have established a likelihood of success in demonstrating that defendants have taken final agency action amounting to guidance or directives to review grants awarded to plaintiffs for termination based on arbitrary, capricious, or unconstitutional rationales,” U.S. District Judge Manish Shah wrote in a two-page ruling issued late Thursday. “Therefore, plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their claim to set aside that guidance under the Administrative Procedure Act and their claim to enjoin unconstitutional action by defendants.”

“President Donald Trump has repeatedly attempted to withhold funding from Democratic-led states, though the cuts have been blocked by lower court judges,” Reuters’ Dietrich Knauth noted. “A judge last month temporarily stopped the Trump administration from freezing five Democratic-led states' access to more than $10 billion of federal funds for childcare and family assistance based on what the administration said were concerns about fraud.” “Trump last month warned so-called ‘sanctuary cities or states’ that he would begin halting funding in February,” Knauth reported.