Court Blocks Federal Funding Freeze and Cuts to Medical, Public Health Research
Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul today announced that a court blocked the Trump administration’s illegal decision to freeze critical federal funding to states. It is the second of two preliminary injunctions courts granted this week in two separate lawsuits challenging unlawful funding policies put in place by the Trump administration. The first came yesterday, when a separate court blocked the administration from cutting billions of dollars to universities and research institutions for medical and public health research. Raoul led multistate coalitions in filing both lawsuits.
“States and research institutions rely on federal funding to provide services our residents rely on. These two preliminary injunctions will prevent the Trump administration’s ludicrous and unlawful policies from being enacted,” Raoul said. “My office relies on federal funds to protect children from online predators through our Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and Illinois universities depend on National Institutes of Health grants to develop new medical treatments that save lives. I will continue to fight any reckless and illegal efforts that threaten this essential funding for the health and safety of our residents.”
Today, a U.S. District Court judge in the District of Rhode Island judge granted a preliminary injunction after Raoul and the coalition sued the Trump administration to block its decision to freeze funding across the board for essential federal agency grants, loans and other financial assistance programs.
The court concluded that the states demonstrated a high likelihood of success on their claims that the funding freeze policy was unlawful. The court explained that the Trump administration had likely acted unlawfully by freezing federal funds that support critical state activities ranging from childcare, to emergency management, to workforce development.
Attorney General Raoul and the coalition sued the administration over the freeze Jan. 28. On Jan. 31, the court granted the attorneys general’s request for a temporary restraining order (TRO), blocking the freeze’s implementation until further order from the court. On Feb. 7, Raoul and the coalition filed motions for enforcement and a preliminary injunction to stop the illegal freeze and preserve federal funding that families, communities and states rely on. Then on Feb. 8, the court granted a motion for enforcement, ordering the administration to immediately comply with the TRO and stop freezing federal funds.
On Feb. 28, Raoul and the attorneys general filed a second motion for enforcement seeking to stop the Trump administration from freezing hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to the states from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In today’s order, the court also required FEMA to provide evidence of its compliance with unfreezing funds by March 14. This funding freeze would threaten critical emergency preparedness and recovery programs to address terrorist attacks, mass shootings, wildfires, floods, cybersecurity threats and more.
If implemented, the funding freeze would immediately jeopardize state programs that provide critical health and childcare services to families in need, deliver support to public schools, combat hate crimes and violence against women, provide lifesaving disaster relief to states, and more. In Illinois, the policy jeopardizes the Attorney General’s ability to identify and hold accountable offenders who prey on children. Raoul’s office runs the Illinois Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, which relies on Department of Justice grant funding to investigate child exploitation crimes and trains law enforcement to do the same.
Yesterday, a U.S. District Court judge for the District of Massachusetts judge granted a preliminary injunction to prevent the Trump administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from cutting billions of dollars in funds that support cutting-edge medical and public health research at universities and research institutions.
The order, which will remain in effect until a final ruling is made, protects critical funds that support biomedical research, like lab, infrastructure and utility costs. Without it, the lifesaving and life-changing medical research in which the U.S. has long been a leader could be compromised.
On Feb. 10, after the same day that the coalition filed its lawsuit against the administration, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a temporary restraining order against the NIH, barring its attempts to cut the critical research funding.
The NIH is the primary source of federal funding for medical research in the United States. Medical research funding by the NIH grants has led to innumerable scientific breakthroughs, including the discovery of treatment for cancers of all types and the first sequencing of DNA. In Illinois, NIH funding helped the Southern Illinois University system develop new treatments for cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and diabetes. Last year, NIH funding to the University of Illinois led to the development of treatments to fight drug-resistant bacteria and help children with cancer and a screening method to help physicians detect ovarian tumors early.
Joining Attorney General Raoul in these lawsuits are attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
