A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction halting the Trump administration’s plan to cut more than $11 billion in public health grants, siding with a coalition of 23 states and the District of Columbia that sued to keep the money flowing.
“Agencies do not have unfettered power to further a president’s agenda,” McElroy wrote. The judge said that the executive branch cannot disregard funds already appropriated by Congress. She noted the states had shown a “strong likelihood of success” in their legal claims and stood to suffer irreparable harm if the cuts were allowed to proceed.
McElroy, an appointee of President Donald Trump, acknowledged the administration’s position that the COVID-19 pandemic had ended and that the grant money—originally approved during the health crisis—was no longer needed. But she found that Congress had already reviewed and preserved the funds in 2023, and that many of the grants served ongoing public health priorities well beyond the pandemic.
HHS had argued that the pandemic was over and that continuing the grants amounted to wasting “billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago.”
However, the judge criticized HHS for issuing boilerplate termination notices citing the end of the pandemic as cause for canceling a wide swath of programs, without individualized review or evidence of misuse.
McElroy wrote that these programs “did much more than address COVID-related public health concerns,” pointing to funding for suicide prevention, overdose response, vaccine access in underserved communities, and preparations for emerging threats such as bird flu and measles.
In court filings, the states said the terminations jeopardized hundreds of frontline positions and risked derailing services to vulnerable populations. For example, Washington state projected a loss of 200 health workers, including 150 full-time staffers responsible for infectious disease preparedness and response.
“Without these employees, the state would be at greater risk for a variety of infectious diseases, some of which cause severe illness, disability, or death,” McElroy wrote, noting also that, under the administration’s funding cut plan, Colorado’s statewide immunization program would be reduced to a single staffer.
“If we don’t have our health, we don’t have anything,” Neronha said in a statement. “A hacksaw approach to government reduction will never yield positive results for the American people, and we will continue to fight, and win, in court to minimize the harm the Trump Administration is causing.”
McElroy’s injunction applies only to the 23 states and the District of Columbia that joined the lawsuit. The judge also ordered the federal government to file a public status report by May 20, detailing its efforts to comply with the ruling—including proof that it has notified agencies and jurisdictions covered by the order.
The Justice Department, which is representing HHS in the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.
