Protesters against planned National Institutes of Health funding cuts
The Trump administration’s push to slash funding at the National Institutes of Health has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge.
The city of Columbus is suing the Trump administration for billions in federal cuts to health funding that are being acutely felt in Ohio’s capital city.
In March, the federal government pulled back $11.4 billion in promised funding for state and community health departments given out in response to the COVID-19 pandemic for tracking, treating and preventing infectious diseases. Federal officials cited the COVID-19 pandemic being “over” as the reason for eliminating the grants.
That included slashing $250 million for childhood vaccination programs at the Ohio Department of Health and $3 million of the $6 million already-promised grants to Columbus Public Health, resulting in the termination of 11 infectious disease investigators.
The cuts are especially dangerous, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court, amid numerous ongoing measles outbreaks across the country, including in Ohio. Cutting the funds “significantly weakens” the city’s ability to respond to any potential infectious disease outbreaks.
Approximately $100,000 for CelebrateOne, a Columbus program aimed at decreasing infant mortality and improving maternal health, was also slashed.
“The Trump administration’s termination of billions of dollars in infectious disease funding is both dangerous and unconstitutional,” Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein said in a release. “The City cannot stay quiet on the sidelines as extremists within this administration continue to defy the Constitution and recklessly endanger the health and safety of our children and the public.”
The lawsuit claims that the funding cuts are unconstitutional because the money was already appropriated by Congress, and the cuts additionally violate the Department of Health and Human Services’ own regulations about canceling grants.
“That’s why we’re in the arena fighting to see this funding released as Congress intended—so that health departments can do their jobs and prevent needless deaths of children and our most vulnerable from outbreaks of deadly diseases like measles,” Klein said in a statement.
The cities of Kansas City and Nashville and Harris County, Texas joined Columbus in the suit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Medical business and health care reporter Samantha Hendrickson can be reached at shendrickson@dispatch.com or @samanthajhendr on X, formerly known as Twitter.
