A federal judge in Illinois on Thursday blocked the Trump administration’s plan to claw back $600 million in public health funds from four states led by Democrats, amid a wider effort by the federal government to pull funding from blue states.
Judge Manish S. Shah of the Federal District Court in Northern Illinois wrote in a two-page order that the plaintiff states — California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota — had provided enough evidence that the cuts were “based on arbitrary, capricious or unconstitutional rationales” to halt what would have been deep cuts in federal public health funding that had already been allocated while legal arguments continue in the case.
It is the latest court ruling staving off deep federal cuts to Democratic-led states, which say they are politically motivated.
Last week, another federal judge extended an order blocking the Trump administration from withholding an even larger pot of funds — $10 billion — for child care and social services in the four states, as well as New York. The Trump administration had also moved last month to suspend funding of food stamps and other hunger relief programs in Minnesota, before a court blocked that plan, as well.
Notably, the order from Judge Shah, an appointee of President Barack Obama, did not specifically identify the $600 million in grants, instead applying his ruling more broadly to block the Trump administration from terminating public health grants “based on undisclosed agency priorities.”
The $600 million in cuts planned this month include grants to state and local public health departments, as well as to some nongovernmental organizations. Nearly two-thirds of the funding is unspent money allocated to state and local public health departments in California. About two dozen of the grants were aimed at curbing H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted infections.
The cuts to public health funding came as President Trump railed against a major welfare fraud scandal that has rocked Minnesota. The president has alleged, without evidence, that similar large fraud schemes are playing out elsewhere in Democratic states.
Mr. Trump claimed last month that there was so much fraud in the system that his administration would be able to balance the national budget once he eliminated the waste in Democratic-led states — a mathematically impossible feat, given the amount of funding involved compared with the size of the national debt. In reality, the annual deficit has risen significantly in the first year of Mr. Trump’s second term. The federal government is now expected to run a $23.1 trillion budget shortfall over the next nine years, a $1.4 trillion increase since Mr. Trump returned to the Oval Office.
Some of the $600 million in grants was also intended to help specific populations, often communities of color or gay and bisexual men. The Trump administration has carried out a widespread campaign to eliminate federal funding for work that it believes is “woke” — a vaguely defined term that is often directed at programs meant to help specific racial and socioeconomic groups.
Chris Cameron is a Times reporter covering Washington, focusing on breaking news and the Trump administration.
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