The Trump administration plans to rescind $600 million in public health funds from four states led by Democrats because it finds the grants “inconsistent with agency priorities,” according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.
The programs slated to be cut are in California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota. They include grants to state and local public health departments as well as to some nongovernmental organizations. A list of the cuts was shared with relevant congressional committees on Monday.
The funds are administered through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They include grants given to states for a variety of purposes, including hiring staffs, modernizing data systems and managing disease outbreaks. Some programs are aimed at the needs of specific communities.
Some of the cuts will be finalized this week and others over the coming weeks, totaling roughly $600 million. The figure was first reported by The New York Post.
Nearly two-thirds of the funding is unspent money allocated to state and local public health departments in California.
“These grants are being terminated because they do not reflect agency priorities,” a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services said. About two dozen of the grants were aimed at curbing H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted infections.
Dr. Deb Houry, who served as the C.D.C.’s chief medical officer before she resigned in August, noted that Congress had already appropriated the funds.
“It is concerning that H.H.S. is cutting public health funding to local communities that cover core functions in the middle of a measles outbreak and other health threats,” she said. “This coupled with large staffing cuts to federal public health leaves communities less prepared.”
Much of the rescinded money comprised large grants to health departments. Among the cuts to partner organizations were:
- $7.2 million from the American Medical Association in Illinois, which supports gender transitions for children;
- $5.2 million from Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago for increasing H.I.V. prevention therapy among Black women;
- $876,000 from the Prevention Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco, to address “reducing social isolation among older L.G.B.T.Q. adults”;
- $371,000 from the Colorado Health Network Inc. to focus on “engaging Latino and African American” men who have sex with men.
In September, the C.D.C.’s website was revised to detail the agency’s new priorities, including moving away from a focus on diseases that predominantly affect certain populations.
That focus “has not translated into measurable improved health for minority populations, and in many cases has undermined core American values,” the agency now says.
Last month, Health and Human Services told state health departments that public health infrastructure grants totaling $5 billion would be paused and reviewed to ensure that they were “aligned” with the administration’s goals. The pause was lifted within 24 hours.