The Trump administration is proposing to cut approximately $600 million in outstanding public health grants from four Democrat states, arguing the grants don’t reflect the agency’s priorities, according to an administration official.
The grants, awarded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fund a wide swath of areas including workforce initiatives, sexually-transmitted infection prevention measures, health equity proposals, pediatric clinician training and others in California, Colorado, Illinois and Minnesota.
The list of grant cuts, which were viewed by Healthcare Dive, were shared with relevant appropriators and congressional committees this week.
The proposed funding cuts include those to state public health departments and municipal agencies in Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver and San Francisco. They also include grants to universities like the University of California, the University of Chicago and the University of Colorado, and nonprofits including the American Medical Association and the National Environmental Health Association.
The cuts would impact grants that fund efforts to boost the public health workforce after the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 20 grants include those dedicated to preventing the spread of HIV or HIV and AIDS surveillance. Others attempt to mitigate the effects of climate change or address racial and ethnic health disparities in a given area.
“These grants are being terminated because they do not reflect agency priorities,” an HHS spokesperson said.
A CDC webpage, published in September, identifies the agency’s new priorities, which include rebuilding trust in the department, modernizing the public health infrastructure and “ensuring compliance with the goals and priorities of the Trump Administration and HHS.”
The webpage also says it will deprioritize programs that promote medical interventions for transgender children and those that promote diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
The Trump administration has made curtailing access to gender-affirming care for minors a priority. Days after his inauguration, President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking to ban federal funding for youth gender-affirming medical treatments. He also directed the HHS to publish a literature report on gender-affirming care, which broadly disavowed treatments like hormone therapies and puberty blockers and proposed a rule threatening to revoke federal funding from hospitals that provide those treatments to minors.
A handful of the canceled grants mention caring for transgender people, including around $237,000 to reduce STDs among transgender women in San Francisco. Around 10 grants mention diversity or equity initiatives, including racial equity and health equity broadly.
The CDC canceled over $1 million to the American Academy of Pediatrics to train pediatricians nationally. The medical group has publicly opposed several initiatives from the Trump administration, pushing back on the HHS’ decision to stop recommending several vaccines received in childhood and supporting gender-affirming care for children. Last month, a federal judge ruled the HHS likely had a “retaliatory motive” when it terminated several grants to the group in December. The judge ordered the Trump administration to restore the grants.
Other terminated grants include almost $4 million to develop training modules for public health professionals. Another $871,000 was proposed cut from a public health training program from the University of California, Los Angeles. Almost $6 million was cut from the City of Minneapolis for a program supporting its health department.
