AG, 23 States Sue To Overturn $370M In Public Health Grant Cuts

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 04/01/2025) A coalition of 23 states, including Michigan, and the District of Columbia, is suing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) seeking to reinstate nearly $11 billion in public health grants.

The grants suddenly terminated included certain mental health and substance abuse grants and those from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) meant to support infectious disease control and vaccinations for children and vulnerable adults.

"The Trump administration is now terminating millions in grants being used in our state to support vaccine clinics for kids, crisis mental health services, opioid abuse intervention, and to control disease spread in healthcare facilities," said Attorney General Dana NESSEL. "And once again they're breaking the law to take money that has been granted to the states. These programs keep Michigan healthy and, in some cases, help save lives, and that's worth standing up and fighting for."

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for Rhode Island, also lists U.S. DHHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a defendant.

More than 300 grants awarded by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) from these federal funds will be impacted by these terminations, which will result in more than $80 million never reaching the direct-care state grant recipients.

In their lawsuit, the AGs assert that the mass terminations violate federal law because the end of the pandemic is not a "for cause" basis for ending the grants, especially since none of the appropriated funds are tied to the end of the pandemic, which occurred more than a year ago.

The federal government's position, until very recently, was that the end of the pandemic did not affect the availability of these grant funds. Moreover, for some of the grants, termination "for cause" is not a permissible basis for termination, the AGs argue.

The AG coalition wants a temporary restraining order to invalidate Kennedy's and DHHS' mass grant terminations in the litigating states, arguing that the actions violate the Administrative Procedure Act. The states are additionally asking the court to prevent the DHHS from maintaining or reinstating the terminations and any agency actions implementing them.

Among the Michigan grants purportedly terminated were a mental health grant to support services for Michiganders suffering serious mental illness or severe emotional disturbances, including children's services, and a substance abuse grant to enhance substance-use disorder services for underserved and marginalized populations, including pregnant women, women with young children, opioid users and rural populations.

Also cut was CDC funding for the control of infectious diseases, which funded laboratory upgrades statewide, throughout both peninsulas, and without which the MDHHS' and local health departments' capacity to respond to healthcare-associated infections in healthcare facilities is effectively eliminated.

Also cut was a CDC grant for the immunization and vaccination of children that were being used for vaccine ordering and storage, hosting vaccine clinics and supporting translation services for vaccination information to non-English-speaking parents and patients.

The state was due a remaining balance of $49 million toward these awards and intended to use part of these funds to provide routine immunizations and immunizations against seasonal respiratory viruses to children, adults and vulnerable and underserved populations.

The Department of Attorney General said in a press release that the abrupt termination of these federal funds has caused panic among the MDHHS' employees, partners, subgrantees and service recipients, many flooding the health agency with questions still left unanswered by the federal government.